Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Feb 15, 2024; 16(2): 259-272
Published online Feb 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i2.259
Biological factors driving colorectal cancer metastasis
Shuai-Xing An, Zhao-Jin Yu, Chen Fu, Min-Jie Wei, Long-Hai Shen
Shuai-Xing An, Zhao-Jin Yu, Chen Fu, Min-Jie Wei, Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, Liaoning Province, China
Shuai-Xing An, Zhao-Jin Yu, Chen Fu, Min-Jie Wei, Liaoning Key Laboratory of Molecular Targeted Antitumor Drug Development and Evaluation, Liaoning Cancer Immune Peptide Drug Engineering Technology Research Center, Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumors (China Medical University), Ministry of Education, Shenyang 110122, Liaoning Province, China
Shuai-Xing An, BD Department, Greenpine Pharma Group Co., Ltd, Tianjin 300020, China
Long-Hai Shen, Center of Oncology, Genertec Liaoyou Gem Flower Hospital, PanJin 124010, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: An SX and Yu ZJ designed the article; An SX and Fu C performed the literature search and drafted the work; Shen LH and Wei MJ revised the work; and all authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to use any copyrighted text and/or illustrations.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Long-Hai Shen, MD, Chief Doctor, Center of Oncology, Genertec Liaoyou Gem Flower Hospital, No. 26 Yingbin Road, Zhenxing Street, Xinglongtai District, PanJin 124010, Liaoning Province, China. 154571964@qq.com
Received: October 1, 2023
Peer-review started: October 1, 2023
First decision: December 11, 2023
Revised: December 23, 2023
Accepted: January 8, 2024
Article in press: January 8, 2024
Published online: February 15, 2024
Core Tip

Core Tip: Metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is traditionally considered to be an advanced stage malignancy or is thought to be caused by incomplete resection of tumor tissue, allowing cancer cells to spread from primary to distant organs; however, increasing evidence suggests that this process can begin early during tumor development. CRC patients exhibit high heterogeneity and diverse cancer phenotypes that are classified based on molecular and morphological alterations. Different genomic and non-genomic events can induce sub-clone diversity, which leads to cancer and metastasis.