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Colorectal cancer: detecting disease before the tumor appears?
17 mars 2026
By Ana Espino | Published on March 17, 2026 | 3 min readColorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, with nearly 2 million new cases each year. Despite the existence of screening programs, mortality remains high, with 5-year survival dropping from 91% at early stage to 15% at stage IV. At the same time, the concerning rise in early-onset cases (
By Ana Espino | Published on March 17, 2026 | 3 min read
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, with nearly 2 million new cases each year. Despite the existence of screening programs, mortality remains high, with 5-year survival dropping from 91% at early stage to 15% at stage IV. At the same time, the concerning rise in early-onset cases (<50 years) is reshaping the epidemiological landscape.
Current strategies rely on the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) and colonoscopy, the diagnostic gold standard. However, FIT has limited sensitivity for early lesions and advanced adenomas. Colonoscopy, being invasive and costly, is difficult to implement at scale for population-wide screening.
The current challenge is to identify minimally invasive, cost-effective tools that are sensitive to early-stage disease and capable of detecting not only tumor signals but also pre-malignant metabolic and immune alterations. This review, published in Clinical and Translational Medicine in 2025, examines the opportunities offered by multi-omics molecular profiling to improve early CRC detection.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide, with nearly 2 million new cases each year. Despite the existence of screening programs, mortality remains high, with 5-year survival dropping from 91% at early stage to 15% at stage IV. At the same time, the concerning rise in early-onset cases (<50 years) is reshaping the epidemiological landscape.
Current strategies rely on the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) and colonoscopy, the diagnostic gold standard. However, FIT has limited sensitivity for early lesions and advanced adenomas. Colonoscopy, being invasive and costly, is difficult to implement at scale for population-wide screening.
The current challenge is to identify minimally invasive, cost-effective tools that are sensitive to early-stage disease and capable of detecting not only tumor signals but also pre-malignant metabolic and immune alterations. This review, published in Clinical and Translational Medicine in 2025, examines the opportunities offered by multi-omics molecular profiling to improve early CRC detection.
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Scientific reference
Sala A, et al. Colorectal cancer molecular profiling: Opportunities for early detection. Clin Transl Med. 2025 Oct;15(10):e70474. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.70474. PMID: 41020351; PMCID: PMC12477549
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