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J Cancer 2021; 12(2):335-342. doi:10.7150/jca.50525 This issue Cite

Research Paper

A New Method for the Detection of Colorectal Cancer and the Precancerous Lesions: Occult Blood Testing Combination with Promoter Methylation in the Fecal Sample

Dan-Yang Wang^1*, Kang-Xin He^2*, Ying Huang³, Qin-Qin Lou⁴, Ti He⁵, Xiao Xu^6✉

1. Department of Colorectal Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
2. State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
3. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
4. Hangzhou Youke Biomedical Inc., Hangzhou, China.
5. Shanghai Genechem Clinical Laboratory Inc., Shanghai, China.
6. Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
*These authors contributed equally to this work.

✉ Corresponding author: Xiao Xu, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, #79, Qingchun Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, P. R. China, 310003. Telephone: +86-571-87236616, E-mail: zjxuedu.cn. More

Abstract

Background: Noninvasive stool-based DNA methylation testing emerges as a new approach for detecting colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its feasibility for early detection of CRC and precancerous lesions in the Chinese population remains inconclusive.

Methods: In this study, we establish a possibilities screening method (sDNA-FOBT) for detecting CRC and precancerous lesions (hyperplastic polyps [HP] and adenomas [AD]) and evaluate its detection performance in the Chinese population. This method combined a molecular assay of DNA methylation markers (BMP3, NDRG4, and SDC2) with the human hemoglobin test (FOBT) in stool samples.

Results: The sensitivity of sDNA-FOBT was 85.42% for CRC, 85.71% for AD, and 28.21% for HP, respectively, at the specificity of 92%. The diagnostic efficacy of sDNA-FOBT for detecting CRC and precancerous lesions was significantly higher than FOBT alone (sensitivity: 61.70% vs. 51.06%, P<0.01; AUC: 0.78 vs. 0.72, P<0.001), especially for CRC (AUC: 0.91 vs. 0.86, P<0.001) and AD (AUC: 0.91 vs. 0.75, P<0.05). No significant difference was observed between the detection sensitivity of sDNA-FOBT and the clinical variables. Notably, compared with FOBT, sDNA-FOBT was more effective in the detection of CRC and precancerous lesions in the patients aged >50 y (62.34% vs 54.55%, P<0.05).

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that sDNA-FOBT is a promising method for screening CRC and precancerous lesions in the Chinese population. Further studies are required to validate the results in a larger sample capacity.

Keywords: CRC screening, DNA methylation marker, stool DNA testing, fecal occult blood testing

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