ColoRectal Cancer – Stratification of Therapies through Adaptive Responses (CRC‑STARS)

A five-year international research project investigating how different bowel cancers respond to current treatments, why certain bowel cancers spread, and whether we can predict which treatments will work for individual patients.

Stratifying therapy through adaptive response

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second most common cause of cancer death. It presents an opportunity for precision medicine: it is common, has known driver molecular pathways, and pre-treatment molecular stratification is achievable.
Recent single-cell studies show CRC tumours are made up of multiple populations within a complex microenvironment. In addition, data from preclinical models show tumour cells are highly plastic, adapting to therapy in ways that may underpin both response and resistance.