REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1571731
This article is part of the Research TopicColorectal Cancer Immunotherapy and Immune MechanismsView all 10 articles
Comprehensive Review of the Resistance Mechanisms of Colorectal Cancer Classified by Therapy Type
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Despite advancements in treatment—including chemotherapy, targeted therapy with epidermal growth factor receptor antibodies, and immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors—many CRC cases exhibit intrinsic or acquired resistance to cancer treatment, leading to limited treatment efficacy and high recurrence rates. Resistance mechanisms encompass evasion of cell death pathways, alterations in drug metabolism, modulations of the tumor microenvironment, dysregulation of signaling pathways, and metabolic reprogramming. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of CRC resistance mechanisms categorized by therapy type, and to discuss emerging strategies, such as nanotechnology-based approaches, to address these therapeutic challenges.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, Immunotherapy, Nanotechnology, radiation therapy, Resistance mechanism
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Oh, Kim, Tsung, Kent, Jain and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongji Zhang, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 22903, Virginia, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.