Detection of hypermethylated spastic paraplegia-20 in stool samples of patients with colorectal cancer.

ABSTRACT

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.