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🗺️ Disease Atlas · Gastrointestinal disease

colorectal cancer

A primary or metastatic malignant neoplasm that affects the colon or rectum. Representative examples include carcinoma, lymphoma, and sarcoma.

🔔 Follow weekly
🧬16268genes / proteins with evidence
💊741drugs and clinical candidates
🧪12+recruiting trials worldwide
✅20approved
📈97phase 3
🧬

Understand colorectal cancer

Cancer · Cells that grow out of control
🎓 Learn more

What it is

Colorectal cancer is cancer that develops in the tissues of the colon or rectum. Your colon and rectum are part of your digestive system:

Your colon is the first and longest part of your large intestine. It absorbs water and some nutrients from foods. It also changes the leftover waste products into stool (poop).

Your rectum is the lower part of your large intestine. It's where your body stores stool.

From MedlinePlus: Colorectal Cancer (US National Library of Medicine) ↗

🧬 Cancer: Cancer is a group of diseases in which some of the body's cells grow and divide without control, and can spread to other parts of the body.

❓ Why it happens

  • Changes (mutations) build up in the genes that tell a cell when to grow, divide and die.
  • Most of these changes happen during life: tobacco, too much sun, alcohol, some infections (such as HPV and hepatitis B and C), radiation, obesity and ageing all raise the risk.
  • Some people inherit a faulty gene that raises their risk, such as BRCA1 or BRCA2.

🫀 What it does to the body

  • Cancer cells form a lump (tumour) that can press on or invade nearby organs.
  • They can travel through the blood or lymph to start new tumours elsewhere (metastasis).
  • Blood cancers crowd out healthy blood cells in the bone marrow.

🧱 Why it is hard to cure

  • Every cancer is different, even between two people with the same type - and inside one tumour.
  • Cancer cells keep changing, so they can learn to resist a medicine that worked at first.
  • Cancer cells are the body's own cells, so killing them without harming healthy cells is hard.
  • Many cancers cause no symptoms until they have spread, and a new medicine often takes more than ten years to go from the lab to patients.

🚀 What research is trying now

  • Targeted medicines against the exact gene change in a tumour (for example EGFR, ALK or KRAS).
  • Immunotherapy that helps the immune system recognise cancer, including CAR-T cell therapy.
  • Personalised cancer vaccines built from each tumour's mutations, now in late trials.
  • Blood tests that look for tumour DNA to find cancer earlier, and AI to read scans and slides.

General information about cancer, reviewed by people; it does not describe any one person. Below: the evidence for colorectal cancer itself.

🤖

AI briefing

Where the science on colorectal cancer stands, from the evidence on this page

AI reads the targets, drugs, trials and papers below and writes where the science stands — every claim cited. It is shared with everyone who opens colorectal cancer.

🎯

Top targets

Genes and proteins ranked by Open Targets evidence (0-1)
MSH2 mutS homolog 2PROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.93
MLH1 mutL homolog 1PROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.92
MSH6 mutS homolog 6PROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.92
PMS2 PMS1 homolog 2, mismatch repair system componentPROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.88
APC APC regulator of Wnt signaling pathwayPROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.88
BRAF B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinasePROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.84
TP53 tumor protein p53PROTACothersmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.84
PIK3CA phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit alphaPROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.82
KRAS KRas proto-oncogene, GTPasePROTACantibodysmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.81
EPCAM epithelial cell adhesion moleculePROTACantibodyothersmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.80
SMAD4 SMAD family member 4PROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.79
FBXO11 F-box protein 11PROTAC🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.79
ATM ATM serine/threonine kinasePROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.78
MUTYH mutY DNA glycosylasePROTACsmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.78
EGFR epidermal growth factor receptorPROTACantibodyothersmall molecule🧊 AlphaFold structure ↗ 0.77

Green labels: what the target is known to be druggable by. The score combines genetics, somatic mutations, drugs, expression and literature.

💊

Drugs and candidates

Every medicine linked to colorectal cancer, by how far it has got
Approved · 20
AfliberceptVascular endothelial growth factor A inhibitor; Placenta growth factor inhibitorApproved
Anamorelin HydrochlorideGhrelin receptor agonistApproved
BevacizumabVascular endothelial growth factor A inhibitorApproved
CapecitabineThymidylate synthase inhibitorApproved
CetuximabEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitorApproved
EdrecolomabEpithelial cell adhesion molecule cross-linking agentApproved
Show all 20
FloxuridineThymidylate synthase inhibitorApproved
FruquintinibVascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibitorApproved
IrinotecanDNA topoisomerase I inhibitorApproved
LevoleucovorinApproved
NecitumumabEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitorApproved
NintedanibPlatelet-derived growth factor receptor inhibitor; Vascular endothelial growth factor rec…Approved
OxaliplatinApproved
PanitumumabEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitorApproved
RegorafenibTyrosine-protein kinase ABL inhibitor; Serine/threonine-protein kinase RAF inhibitorApproved
Technetium Tc-99MApproved
TipiracilThymidine phosphorylase inhibitorApproved
Tipiracil HydrochlorideThymidine phosphorylase inhibitorApproved
TrifluridineApproved
VotumumabApproved
In phase 2 / 3 · 20
AdagrasibGTPase KRas inhibitorPhase 3
AdebrelimabProgrammed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitorPhase 3
AmivantamabEpidermal growth factor receptor erbB1 inhibitor; Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhib…Phase 3
ArfolitixorinPhase 3
Ascorbic AcidPhase 3
AspirinCyclooxygenase inhibitorPhase 3
Show all 20
AtezolizumabProgrammed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitorPhase 3
BecotatugPhase 3
BermekimabInterleukin-1 alpha inhibitorPhase 3
CadonilimabProgrammed cell death protein 1 inhibitor; Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte protein 4 inhibitorPhase 3
CatequentinibVascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 inhibitor; Vascular endothelial growth fact…Phase 3
CediranibStem cell growth factor receptor inhibitor; Platelet-derived growth factor receptor inhib…Phase 3
CelecoxibCyclooxygenase-2 inhibitorPhase 3
CholecalciferolVitamin D receptor agonistPhase 3
CisplatinPhase 3
Cm-4307Phase 3
CyclosporineCyclophilin A modulatorPhase 3
Dalteparin SodiumAntithrombin-III activatorPhase 3
DexamethasoneGlucocorticoid receptor agonistPhase 3
DoxorubicinDNA topoisomerase II alpha inhibitorPhase 3
Early trials · 20
2X-121Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase-1 inhibitor; Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 2 inhibitorPhase 1/2
Amg-820Macrophage colony stimulating factor receptor inhibitorPhase 1/2
AmifostinePhase 1/2
Aminolevulinic Acid HydrochloridePhase 1/2
Apg-1387Phase 1/2
Arsenic TrioxideThioredoxin reductase 1 inhibitorPhase 1/2
Show all 20
AvotaciclibPhase 1/2
Bbp-398Phase 1/2
BempegaldesleukinPhase 1/2
BexmarilimabPhase 1/2
Bintrafusp AlfaProgrammed cell death 1 ligand 1 binding agent; Transforming growth factor beta binding a…Phase 1/2
BirinapantcIAP1/cIAP2 inhibitorPhase 1/2
Bms-754807Insulin-like growth factor I receptor inhibitor; Insulin receptor inhibitorPhase 1/2
Bms-813160C-C chemokine receptor type 2 antagonist; C-C chemokine receptor type 5 antagonistPhase 1/2
Brivanib AlaninateFibroblast growth factor receptor inhibitor; Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor …Phase 1/2
BrivudinePhase 1/2
BuparlisibPI3-kinase class I inhibitorPhase 1/2
CamptothecinPhase 1/2
Carfilzomib26S proteasome inhibitorPhase 1/2
CedazuridineCytidine deaminase inhibitorPhase 1/2
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Recruiting trials

Worldwide, open to new patients now
Standard Systemic Therapy Combined With High/Low-dose Radiotherapy Plus Toripalimab for Metastatic Colorectal…NCT06525428 · Phase 2 · 📍 ShanghaiAI-Assisted Chemotherapy Side Effect ManagementNCT07198581 · NA · 📍 IncheonFeasibility of the LUM Imaging System for Detection of Gastrointestinal CancersNCT02584244 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 BostonCOLON-IM : Microbiota and Immune Infiltrate in Normal, Dysplastic and Neoplastic Colorectal TissueNCT03841799 · n/a · 📍 LyonStudy to Test the Safety and Tolerability of PF-07220060 in Participants With Advance Solid TumorsNCT04557449 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 Los AngelesThe Development of MASLD Among Survivors of Breast or Colorectal CancerNCT07280143 · n/a · 📍 BernDOSAGE Study: Upfront Dose-Reduced Chemotherapy in Older Patients with Metastatic Colorectal CancerNCT06275958 · Phase 3 · 📍 's-HertogenboschA Trial of RSC-1255 for Treatment of Patients With Advanced MalignanciesNCT04678648 · Phase 1 · 📍 Los AngelesFluorescence Image Guided Surgery Followed by Intraoperative Photodynamic Therapy for Improving Local Tumor C…NCT06307548 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 BuffaloThe Safety, Efficacy, and Immune Response of Multimodal Thermal Therapy in the Treatment of Malignant Liver T…NCT07159048 · NA · 📍 ShanghaiEffects of Aerobic Exercise on Skeletal Muscle Remodeling in Colorectal CancerNCT05789433 · NA · 📍 OrlandoA Study of JMT203 in Patients With Cancer CachexiaNCT06868849 · Phase 1, Phase 2 · 📍 Zhejiang Search more trials →
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AI Cure shows public evidence (Open Targets, ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed, openFDA, DepMap, AlphaFold) with its source, and AI summaries that cite it — not medical advice and not a cure. Treatment decisions belong with your doctor. Research ideas are shared only with approved researchers and labs, who can test them. In an emergency call your local emergency number (112 in India and Europe, 911 in the US). AI Cure Terms of Use · Privacy