Biomarker & Intervention Discovery
Colorectal Cancer
Pharmacologically actionable gene targets, therapeutic agents ranked by evidence tier, and active clinical trials.
US DALYs1.58MWHO GHE 2021 · all ages
Global DALYs23.83MWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
US mortality62.5K deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021
Global mortality945.2K deaths/yrWHO GHE 2021 · worldwide
NIH funding$361MFY2025 · RCDC estimate
Funding levelUnderfunded
Spontaneous remissionEssentially zero; 5-year survival stage I: ~90% (resectable); stage IV: ~15% overall, ~20-30% with modern therapy and…
Best-intervention remissionStage I-III with surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy: 60-80% 5-year survival; MSI-H/dMMR CRC: pembrolizumab first-line…
Gap sizeLarge screening gap: only 60-68% of US adults up-to-date with CRC screening; large treatment gap for MSI-H biomarker…
Primary barrieraccess/practice
Full remission profile →
Remission & chronicity
Spontaneous remission
Essentially zero; 5-year survival stage I: ~90% (resectable); stage IV: ~15% overall, ~20-30% with modern therapy and liver metastasis resection
Best-intervention remission
Stage I-III with surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy: 60-80% 5-year survival; MSI-H/dMMR CRC: pembrolizumab first-line achieves ~55% 5-year PFS vs ~16% with chemotherapy (KEYNOTE-177); complete tumour regression with neoadjuvant therapy in rectal cancer (watch-and-wait): 15-30% complete pathological response allowing organ preservation
Gap size
Large screening gap: only 60-68% of US adults up-to-date with CRC screening; large treatment gap for MSI-H biomarker testing
Primary barrier
access/practice
Colonoscopy screening is dramatically underused despite proven 60-70% mortality reduction; stool-based tests (FIT, Cologuard) improving uptake but sensitivity/specificity inferior; biomarker testing for MSI/MMR status still not universal; palliative colostomy vs sphincter-preserving approaches vary widely by provider
Biomarker Targets & Therapeutic Agents
Gene targets queried against DGIdb, Open Targets, ChEMBL, PubMed, and Europe PMC.
Agents ranked: ● Clinical >
● Mechanistic >
● Correlative.
Pipeline results not yet available. Run: python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_for_diseases --skip-llm
Clinical Trials
Recruiting and recently completed trials from ClinicalTrials.gov.
Data retrieved 2026-07-06.
No recent clinical trials found on ClinicalTrials.gov for this condition.
Agents Found By Disease-Level Search
Searched directly from “Colorectal Cancer” via ClinicalTrials.gov interventions and Open Targets'
disease→drug data — independent of the 0-gene target panel above.
This surfaces agents whose mechanism doesn't route through a curated gene (combination
therapies, standard-of-care drugs, targets outside the panel).
Not yet run. python -m biomarker_pipeline.run_disease_agent_discovery --disease "..."