Over the past few years, a wealth of new insights have been gained and put to use in basic gastrointestinal tumor research, including tumor suppressor genes, oncogenes, cell-cycle con trol, apoptosis, adhesion receptors, signal transduction, and gene therapy. Similarly, progress has been made in preven tion, molecular diagnosis, laparoscopic staging, and antibody based immunotherapy, and new drugs such as thyrnidylate and topoisomerase I inhibitors have been developed espe cially for the treatment of colorectal carcinoma. Despite this burgeoning of knowledge in both basic and clinical...