Colorectal Cancer Screening Comes of Age

Abstract

Remarkable progress has been made over the past 25 years in understanding the biologic aspects of colorectal cancer and developing methods to detect it early or even prevent it entirely¹. Colorectal cancer arises from a precursor lesion, the adenomatous polyp, which forms in a fertile field of epithelial-cell hyperproliferation. This progression involves a multistep process, accompanied by alterations in several suppressor genes, that results in abnormalities of growth regulation and has a natural history of 10 to 15 years. Environmental factors and inherited susceptibility have major roles in this sequence of events^1,2. The long natural history provides . . .