Integrative Approaches to Colorectal Cancer Management
Summary
Colorectal cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, driving a shift from single‐modality treatments to multifaceted strategies that combine surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted agents and immunotherapy with complementary interventions. Integrative management seeks not only to optimise tumour control but also to preserve quality of life, reduce treatment‐related toxicity and strengthen host defence mechanisms. Nutritional modulation, traditional herbal formulations, phytochemicals, exercise and psychosocial support have all been explored as adjuvants to standard care. Preclinical studies reveal how botanical extracts may influence critical signalling pathways—such as PI3K–Akt, Wnt/β-catenin and NF-κB—to curtail proliferation, invasion and chemoresistance, while clinical trials demonstrate improvements in progression‐free survival, symptom burden and immune markers when herbal therapies are judiciously combined with cytotoxic and targeted regimens. Advances in network pharmacology and systems biology underpin mechanistic insights, enabling the rational design of multi‐component interventions. Ultimately, integrative oncology in colorectal cancer aspires to a personalised paradigm in which conventional and complementary modalities operate in concert to achieve durable remission, minimise adverse events and enhance patient well-being.
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Integrative Approaches to Colorectal Cancer Management publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in integrative approaches to colorectal cancer management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Adjuvant therapy: A supplementary treatment given alongside primary therapy to enhance its efficacy.
Network pharmacology: An approach that analyses complex interactions between multi‐component drugs and biological targets within disease networks.
Apoptosis: Programmed cell death mechanism that eliminates damaged or unwanted cells without provoking inflammation.
Immune checkpoints: Regulatory pathways in the immune system that maintain self‐tolerance and modulate antitumour responses.
Phytochemical: A bioactive compound derived from plants, often investigated for therapeutic properties in cancer.
References
- Chinese herbal medicine for the treatment of intestinal cancer: preclinical studies and potential clinical applications. Molecular Cancer (2024).
- Mechanism of Bazhen decoction in the treatment of colorectal cancer based on network pharmacology, molecular docking, and experimental validation. Frontiers in Immunology (2023).
- Traditional Chinese Medicine Combined With Chemotherapy and Cetuximab or Bevacizumab for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. Frontiers in Pharmacology (2020).
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