Background: Analysis of aberrant hypermethylation in stool DNA might provide a novel strategy for noninvasive detection of colorectal cancer.
Aims: To explore the feasibility of detecting hypermethylation in Spastic paraplegia-20 promoter as a stool-based DNA marker for detection of colorectal cancer.
Methods: We collected 96 tissue and stool samples from patients with colorectal cancer and 30 stool samples healthy individuals.
Results: Hypermethylated Spastic paraplegia-20 occurs in 85.4% (82/96) of patients with colorectal cancer in the tissue samples. In the stool samples, the results indicate 80.2% (77/96) sensitivity and 100% (30/30) specificity of the test for detecting colorectal cancer by using the stool samples as a noninvasive method.
Conclusions: The study reveals that hypermethylation in Spastic paraplegia-20 promoter is a highly specific and sensitive biomarker for screening colorectal cancer in stool samples as a noninvasive method.
Keywords: Biomarker.; Colorectal cancer; Hypermethylation; SPG20; Screening; Stool DNA.