Appearance of epithelial and stromal genomic instability in background colorectal mucosa of sporadic colorectal cancer patients: relation to age and gender

Background We have previously demonstrated that not only epithelial but also stromal genetic instability possibly contributes to colorectal tumorigenesis. To assess the increasing risk of carcinogenesis in the colorectum with aging, we examined genomic instability in both epithelia and stroma in the background noncancerous mucosa of patients with colorectal carcinomas.