Microarray analysis to reveal genes involved in colon carcinogenesis.

Sporadic colon cancer is a major cause of death throughout the world. Multistage development of the disease has been associated with remarkable genetic events, mainly at the level of oncogenes and oncosuppressor genes, most notably APC (adenomatous polyposis coli), ras and p53. Despite all of these efforts, the development of a sensitive and convenient diagnostic system for detecting colorectal cancers at the early stage is still in progress. In recent years, cDNA and oligonucleotide microarray technologies have made the analysis of gene expression profiles of colorectal tumours at the genomic level possible and have identified signatures of gene expression associated with pre-cancerous phenotypes, cancers of the early stage and/or metastatic cancer. The contribution of this powerful technology in identification of novel important genes for prognosis, diagnosis and therapy of sporadic colorectal will be discussed.