Colon cancer articles from across Nature Portfolio

Mouse models of lung and colorectal cancer with sporadic DNA mismatch repair deficiency clarify that the intratumor heterogeneity and clonal architecture rather than tumor mutational burden are powerful determinants of immunotherapy response.

We characterized cancer cells, immune responses and the microbiota composition in a cohort of primary colon cancers. Multi-omic analyses defined parameters associated with favorable prognosis, including a score that captured the intratumoral immune response and a specific microbiome signature. This data repository (atlas and compass of immune–cancer–microbiome interactions (AC-ICAM)) is publicly available.

Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) is used for restricted indications only. Growing demand for out-of-hospital treatment combined with technical and clinical improvements in quality has made a wider use plausible. Artificial intelligence-supported footage analysis and quality assessment might further improve quality and reduce the price of CCE to a competitive level.

Schmitt et al. describe an adaptive mechanism employed by colorectal cancers to handle pro-apoptotic chemotherapeutic insults, which could represent a targetable vulnerability with combination therapy.

Many patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) relapse after chemotherapy. Tumor cells that do not completely adapt to their environment (owing to an incomplete set of CRC driver mutations) enter a latent state, in which the expression of Mex3a is upregulated. Mex3a⁺ cells are chemoresistant and reactivate after treatment, which leads to regeneration of the disease.