Next Steps for Wnt Research in Colorectal Cancer

Luke Dow, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses the next steps for researching the Wnt pathway in colorectal cancer.

Currently, Wnt research is being guided by the clinic, explains Dow. Researchers are looking at the types of alterations seen through genomic profiling and from early-phase clinical trials to understand what is working, says Dow. From there, clinically relevant questions can be addressed.

Researchers are focused on defining, from a genetic standpoint, who would be most susceptible to Wnt-targeted therapies as well as who may show complete resistance to targeted approaches, according to Dow. Then, a patient subset likely to respond to these compounds in the clinic can be defined, concludes Dow.