Gastroenterology: MicroRNA spectrum in feces can detect colorectal cancer

Background and objectives: The most extensive method of screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) is an opal immunochemical test, but this method is limited by the low sensitivity of detecting advanced adenomas (AAs)Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether microRNA (miRNA) in fecal samples could identify patients with AA or CRCmethod: This study consists of four phasesDuring the discovery phase, the researchers performed genome-wide miRNA expression across 124 fresh pairs of colorectal tumors and non-tumor samples (30 CRC; 32AA) from SpainDuring the technical validation phase, the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was quantified in the fecal samples of some patients at the detection stage (n s 39) and individuals without colorectal tumors, and the changes in expression levels in tumor tissue and non-tumor tissue were determined, n s 39During the clinical validation phase, the most significantly increased miRNAs were found through quantitative reverse transcript polymerase chain reaction analysis, asmeasured in a separate group of fecal samples (n s 767)Results: In 200 and 324 miRNAs that were significantly inactivated in CRC and AA tissue, the researchers found significant increases in FEC samples in patients with advanced tumors, mir421, MIR130b-3p, and MIR27a-3p, respectivelyThe combination of fecal MIR421, MIR27a-3p and hemoglobin determined that the curve-underarea (AUC) in CRC patients was 0.93, while the fecal hemoglobin concentration was 0.67Conclusion: This study shows that elevated levels of miRNA and hemoglobin in fecal can more accurately identify AA or CRC patients than individual fecal hemoglobin concentrations