Traditional Chinese medicine for colorectal cancer treatment: potential targets and mechanisms of action

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a disease with complex pathogenesis, it is prone to metastasis, and its development involves abnormalities in multiple signaling pathways. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, target therapy, and immunotherapy remain the main treatments for CRC, but improvement in the overall survival rate and quality of life is urgently needed. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history of preventing and treating CRC. It could affect CRC cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, migration, invasion, autophagy, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, and chemoresistance by regulating multiple signaling pathways, such as PI3K/Akt, NF-kappa B, MAPK, Wnt/beta-catenin, epidermal growth factor receptors, p53, TGF-beta, mTOR, Hedgehog, and immunomodulatory signaling pathways. In this paper, the main signaling pathways and potential targets of TCM and its active ingredients in the treatment of CRC were systematically summarized, providing a theoretical basis for treating CRC with TCM and new ideas for further exploring the pathogenesis of CRC and developing new anti-CRC drugs.

Automated summary

Colorectal cancer is a complex disease with a high risk of metastasis and involvement of multiple signaling pathways. Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history of preventing and treating this type of cancer by regulating various signaling pathways. This paper systematically summarizes the main signaling pathways and potential targets of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of colorectal cancer, providing a theoretical basis for its use and suggesting new ideas for further research and development of anti-cancer drugs for colorectal cancer.