[Contribution of molecular biology to the diagnosis and therapy of colorectal carcinoma--the present and future].

Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequent malignant disease and despite of the development of modern surgical and oncological treatment, it is still a very severe diagnosis for the patient. The survival of the patient after the radical surgery is mostly affected by the time of detection of the disease and by the selection of the appropriate oncological treatment. The effectivity of the oncological treatment depends mainly on the features of the malignant tissue. During the last decade, the importance of the molecular biology and it's methodology have been growing for both detection of the disease and the selection of the best treatment for the individual patient. Genetic and epigenetic characteristics of the tumours helps to predict the prognosis of the disease and also select the best treatment, which extends the disease-free and overall survival of the patient. The presented review describes the most important molecular-biological characteristics with the prognostic or predictive function, which are used in the clinical practice or are in the later phase of clinical study.