CLINICAL-MODELS OF CHEMOPREVENTION FOR COLON-CANCER

Colon cancer is a common malignancy in the westernized world and is in curable in its advanced stages. This article summarizes the currently available information on colorectal cancer chemoprevention. A brief ou tline of the incidence and etiologic factors is followed by a discussi on of the evidence on which chemopreventive strategies for colon cance r are modeled. This includes a description of the development of surro gate endpoint biomarkers and experimental models to study colorectal c ancer chemopreventives, a review of the promising colorectal cancer ch emopreventives, and a discussion of the issues to be addressed in the design of future chemoprevention trials. The article concludes with an emphasis on the development and validation of biomarkers and selectio n of high-risk cohorts using genetic and epidemiologic tools as the ma in goals of future colon cancer chemoprevention trials before large-sc ale, risk-reduction trials are conducted.