Chin‑Chia Wua,b,c*, Ta‑Wen Hsua,b, Chia‑Chou Yehc,d, Hsien‑Bing Huange
aDivision of Colorectal Surgery, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Chiayi, Taiwan, bCollege of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, cSchool of Post‑Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, dDepartment of Chinese Medicine, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Chiayi, Taiwan, eDepartment of Biomedical Sciences and Institute of Molecular Biology, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan
Open Access funded by Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most malignant tumors in humans and causes mass mortality. In the age of precise medicine, more and more subtypes of CRC were classified. The caudal‑related homeobox transcription factor 2 (CDX2) is an intestine‑specific transcription factor which is implicated in differentiation, proliferation, cell‑adhesion, and migration. The loss of CDX2 in immunohistochemical stain was reported to be a prognostic factor of colon cancer, but the clinical application remained controversial. Most of the CRCs expressed or over‑expressed CDX2. Homeobox genes can display either an oncogenic or a tumor‑suppressing activity. CDX2 regulates the developing intestinal epithelium and CRC by different pathways. The complex regulation of CDX2 and its complex targets cause the difficulties of application for CDX2 in the prediction of prognosis. However, CDX2 is a potential biomarker applied in the precise classification of CRC for personalized medicine. This review partially clarifies the role of CDX2 in CRC.
Keywords: Cancer biomarker, Caudal‑related homeobox transcription factor 2, Colorectal cancer
