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DNA test shows promise for identifying patients with colorectal cancer (p 1283)
April 14, 2004Testing for DNA changes in stools might provide a new, accurate, and less invasive way to screen patients for colorectal cancer, conclude the authors of a research letter in this week's issue of THE LANCET.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the industrialised world, and early detection might help to reduce the risk of death from the disease. However, although several methods of detection are available, these procedures are either uncomfortable for the patient or are not specific or sensitive enough to be suitable as screening tools.
Hannes M Müller from the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria, and colleagues investigated whether patients with colorectal cancer could be identified by testing stool samples for changes in DNA methylation-a form of genetic alteration that is common in colorectal cancer cells. The researchers used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to identify DNA changes in stools from patients with the disease and from healthy controls, to assess the most promising DNA methylation markers from a long list of candidate genes. They then tested for these potential markers in samples from two sets of patients and healthy controls, comprising a total of 49 individuals.
A gene known as SFRP2 was methylated more frequently in DNA from the stools of patients with colorectal cancer than in samples from people without the disease, with a sensitivity of 77-90% and specificity (a measure of reliability, relating to proportion of "false-positive" and "false-negative" results) of 77%. SFRP2 methylation could, therefore, be useful as a marker in screening for colorectal cancer.
Martin Widschwendter, the principle investigator of this study, comments: "To our knowledge, SFRP2 methylation represents one of the most sensitive markers for identifying colorectal cancer, besides mutation analysis and protein analysis, in stool samples. Whether a panel of genetic and epigenetic markers in stool could be used to identify colorectal cancer at an early stage remains to be shown."
Lancet
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Survival of head and neck cancer patients is greatly affected by coexisting ailments
Current estimates for head and neck cancer survival are largely inaccurate because they widely disregard many of the most common diseases such patients have in addition to their primary cancer, says Jay Piccirillo, M.D., a head and neck specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Home-based diet and exercise intervention improves elderly cancer survivors' physical function
A home-based program to improve exercise and diet led to significant, clinically meaningful improvement in body weight and physical function among older long-term cancer survivors in preliminary findings from the RENEW (Reach-out to ENhancE Wellness) trial.
Adalimumab may reduce health-care costs for Crohn's disease patients
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SNPs affect folate metabolism in study of Puerto-Rican adults
Researchers at Tufts University have gained further understanding of the genomic basis for altered folate metabolism and the content of uracil in blood DNA.
National call for cancer clinical trial system to be more responsive to community needs
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Surgical Removal of Small Colon Polyps is Costly and Unnecessary
Polypectomy (the surgical removal of polyps by colonoscopy) of small polyps found during CT colonography is costly and unnecessary according to a study performed at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, WI.
New journal shows half-broken gene is enough to cause cancer
Tumour suppressor genes do not necessarily require both alleles to be knocked out before disease phenotypes are expressed. Research published in BioMed Central's new open access journal PathoGenetics reveals that only one allele of SMAD4 has to be damaged to put a person at risk of pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
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