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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2015; 21(41): 11777-11792
Published online Nov 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i41.11777
Pathophysiological mechanisms of death resistance in colorectal carcinoma
Ching-Ying Huang, Linda Chia-Hui Yu
Ching-Ying Huang, Linda Chia-Hui Yu, Graduate Institute of Physiology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 100, Taiwan
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this manuscript.
Supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, MOST 103-2811-B-002 -060 and MOST 102-2628-B-002-009-MY3; and National Taiwan University, No. NTU-CDP-104R7798.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Linda Chia-Hui Yu, PhD, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Physiology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Suite 1020, 1 Jen-Ai Rd. Sec. I, Taipei 100, Taiwan. lchyu@ntu.edu.tw
Telephone: +886-2-23123456-88237 Fax: +886-2-23964350
Received: April 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 7, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: June 18, 2015
Accepted: August 31, 2015
Article in press: August 31, 2015
Published online: November 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The mechanisms underlying anti-death cytoprotection and tumor resistance bear common pathways, and although distinguishing them would be a challenge, it would also provide an opportunity to develop advanced anti-cancer therapeutics. Autocrine, paracrine and exogenous factors within a tumor microenvironment may instigate apoptotic and necroptotic resistance in colon cancers. The roles of cyclooxygenase-2/prostaglandin E2, growth factors, glucose, and bacterial lipopolysaccharide will be highlighted. Targeting death resistance pathways in colon cancer tissue might be a promising approach outside of anti-proliferation and anti-angiogenesis strategies for developing novel drugs to treat refractory tumors.