Prediction of the biological behavior of tumors: colorectal cancer case study. Retrospective and future outlook

Attempts to determine the biological behavior of tumors have been an integral part of research in oncology for nearly 100 years. During this period, many works have been carried out to assess the value of individual factors, including both clinical information about the patient and the pathomorphological features of the tumor. Various systems have been proposed and modified, combining all possible combinations of neoplasm characteristics and epidemiological parameters. Thus, approaches to predicting the biological behavior of tumors can be conditionally divided into two types: the first, an analytical approach, is based on revealing individual morphological or clinical factors that affect the course of the tumor process, and the second, a systemic approach, which consists in combining several related and interacting constitute signs into a unified predictive model. Existing tumor classification systems are far from perfect. Nevertheless, the general consensus among pathologists, surgeons, and clinical oncologists is that prognosis parameters deserve to be a part of the standard pathology report for most tumors.