New Diagnostic Faecal Test Could Identify Colorectal Cancer

31.05.2002

Authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describe a new technique where the detection of a specific protein in faeces could be a marker for colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a common disease (causing around 500,000 deaths each year worldwide), and screening methods that are more reliable than colonoscopy and faecal-blood assessment are needed for earlier disease detection. Nicholas Coleman and colleagues from the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Cambridge, UK, aim to develop a non-invasive, stool-based assessment that can identify a specific protein - minichromosome maintenance protein 2 (MCM2) - which is present in cancerous colorectal cells but not normal cells.

In a clinical study, the investigators detected MCM2-positive cells from 37 of 40 patients known to have colorectal cancer; there was no detection of the protein in any of the 25 healthy individuals (the control group).

Nicholas Coleman comments: “These findings suggest that detection of MCM2 in colonocytes retrieved from the faecal surface might be of value in the non-invasive diagnosis of malignant colorectal disease. The conditions of this study do not represent those of a general screening setting, and our findings might have differed in a population with a higher frequency of cancers of the right-side of the colon. Nevertheless, despite the requirement for rapid stool processing, our approach might ultimately prove suitable for population screening, either alone or in combination with other tests.”

Richard Lane | Source: alphagalileo

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