ABSTRACT
Colorectal cancer （CRC）， as the third most common cancer in the world， develops from the colonic and rectal epithelial cells. With the rapid development of the global economy， the incidence of CRC in developing countries has been increasing year by year. In the past few years， although preventive colonoscopy screening has improved the survival rate of CRC patients， the majority of cases are still detected after symptoms appear. Currently， the clinical treatment of CRC carries high surgical risks and is prone to recurrence， while radiotherapy and chemotherapy have significant side effects and cause a heavy psychological burden on patients. Therefore， there is currently no ideal treatment protocol for CRC. The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B （PI3K/Akt） pathway， as a classical oncogenic pathway， provides potential for the diagnosis and treatment of various malignant diseases， and offers a new direction for the treatment of CRC. In recent years， traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has become a major focus in cancer treatment due to its advantages in "preventing and treating diseases" and its multiple components， targets， and pathways. Its advantages in having fewer side effect complement western medicine in treatment. Multiple studies have shown that Chinese medicinal monomers and compound formulas can inhibit the proliferation， invasion， migration， and angiogenesis of CRC cells， promote apoptosis and autophagy of cancer cells， and slow down the development of CRC by intervening in the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway， thereby achieving the therapeutic effect on CRC. In recent years， the research progress related to this has been updating rapidly. Previous literature failed to timely incorporate the latest research results， which brought many inconveniences to the literature search of many scholars. Therefore， this article summarized the relevant information from PI3K/Akt pathway， the association between the PI3K/Akt pathway and CRC， and the progress of TCM intervention in the treatment of CRC to provide references for the development of CRC in molecular biology and the clinical development of new drugs in the future.