The trend of current research is not only to obtain a complete characterisation of the cause of inception of tumor proliferation, but in particular to characterize in detail multi-degree cascades of the metastatic process. Precise description of the effector genes and their protein products which influence individual processes of the metastatic cascade, is of great significance not only for the early diagnosis of the possible tumor invasion into its immediate environment and the creation of distantmetastases, but particularly for the development of new therapeutic procedures which will help to change from empirical to causal treatment. In practice this means a shift from those therapeutic procedures which lead only to simple blocking of cell division or cell growth, to addressing the individual stages of tumor development (correction of genetic defects in tumor cells, inhibition of the metastatic cascade, inhibition of angiogenesis and apoptosis, etc.). The article characterizes the biological activity of tumors in connection with the metastatic process in colorectal carcinoma.

        Key words: metastatic process, colorectal carcinoma, markers of biological activity.