Colon Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Colon Cancer, including details on causes, treatment, symptoms.

Colonic crypt organization and tumorigenesis.

Humphries A, Wright NA

Histopathology Lab, London Research Institute, Cancer Research UK, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PX, UK. Adam.Humphries@cancer.org.uk

An appreciation of colonic crypt organization has become essential to any understanding of tumorigenesis in the colon. Intestinal crypts house tissue-specific, multipotential stem cells, which are located in the niche at the base of the intestinal crypt and are capable of regenerating all intestinal cell types. Recent advances in our understanding of crypt biology, including how mutations in stem cells become fixed and expand within the epithelium, has led to new theories on the origins of colonic adenomas and cancers.

Published 26 May 2008 in Nat Rev Cancer, 8(6): 415-24.
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