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Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis Using DNA Levels in Blood and Stool

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Book cover Colorectal Cancer

Part of the book series: Methods of Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy, and Prognosis ((HAYAT,volume 4))

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the fourth most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. Each year, there are more than 1 million new cases diagnosed and more than 500,000 deaths from this disease (Parkin et al., 2005). Generally, the timescale for the development of a premalignant lesion into cancer is 5–10 years (Davies et al., 2005), which means that there is a large potential to reduce the burden of the disease by diagnosing lesions in pre-cancerous or early cancer stages. Moreover, considering its characteristics (long cancer development interval, location within an accessible organ and high lifetime incidence), CRC is suitable for mass screening programs, and it has been estimated that > 50% of deaths due to this disease could be prevented by screening tests (Walsh and Terdiman, 2003). Apart from the fecal occult blood test (FOBT), the majority of currently available screening tools are invasive and expensive, and there is an ongoing debate regarding the best and most cost-effective method to use in screening programs for CRC.

A potentially important diagnostic tool is the analysis of molecular alterations detectable in human DNA extracted from stool, and many authors have investigated this area by analyzing a single molecular target or a combination of these (Ahlquist et al., 2000; Rengucci et al., 2001; Imperiale et al., 2004; Itzkowitz et al., 2007). Unfortunately, the vast majority of these methods are time-consuming and expensive, and it is highly unlikely that they will be transferred to clinical practice for early diagnosis programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Via Maroncelli 34/36, Meldola (FC), 47014, Italy

    Emanuela Flamini, Calistri Daniele, Mercatali Laura, Rengucci Claudia & Amadori Dino

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  1. Emanuela Flamini
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  2. Calistri Daniele
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  3. Mercatali Laura
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  4. Rengucci Claudia
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  5. Amadori Dino
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Kean University, Union, NJ, USA

    M. A. Hayat

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Flamini, E., Daniele, C., Laura, M., Claudia, R., Dino, A. (2009). Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis Using DNA Levels in Blood and Stool. In: Hayat, M.A. (eds) Colorectal Cancer. Methods of Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy, and Prognosis, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9545-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9545-0_5

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