Figures & data
Figure 1. Preventing colorectal cancer by exploiting the paracrine hormone hypothesis of colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is a stepwise disease whereby a normal epithelium is transformed over a period of years into first an adenoma until finally becoming an adenocarcinoma. Importantly, guanylin expression is lost early and universally in this transformative continuum and contributes to disease progression as depicted in the diagram. Insets to this cartoon show adapted immunohistochemistry images (guanylin depicted in purple, nuclei/hematoxylin depicted in black) of normal human colonic epithelium as contrasted with human adenocarcinoma which demonstrate complete loss of guanylin staining in the adenocarcinoma (inset images adapted from Wilson etal. Biomarkers & Prevention, 2014). Importantly, GUCY2C ligand loss in colorectal cancer provides a therapeutic opportunity for chemoprevention through exogenous administration of GUCY2C ligands.
