title: Systematic large-scale meta-analysis identifies a panel of two mRNAs as blood biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection.
abstract: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world. A significant survival rate is achieved if it is detected at an early stage. A whole blood screening test, without any attempt to isolate blood fractions, could be an important tool to improve early detection of colorectal cancer. We searched for candidate markers with a novel approach based on the Transcriptome Mapper (TRAM), aimed at identifying specific RNAs with the highest differential expression ratio between colorectal cancer tissue and normal blood samples. This tool permits a large-scale systematic meta-analysis of all available data obtained by microarray experiments. The targeting of RNA took into consideration that tumour phenotypic variation is associated with changes in the mRNA levels of genes regulating or affecting this variation.A real time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT- PCR) was applied to the validation of candidate markers in the blood of 67 patients and 67 healthy controls. The expression of genes: TSPAN8, LGALS4, COL1A2 and CEACAM6 resulted as being statistically different.In particular ROC curves attested for TSPAN8 an AUC of 0.751 with a sensitivity of 83.6% and a specificity of 58.2% at a cut off of 10.85, while the panel of the two best genes showed an AUC of 0.861 and a sensitivity of 92.5% with a specificity of 67.2%.Our preliminary study on a total of 134 subjects showed promising results for a blood screening test to be validated in a larger cohort with the staging stratification and in patients with other gastrointestinal diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.|Centre of Molecular Genetics, "CARISBO Foundation", Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Rodia
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Giampaolo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ugolini
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.|Centre of Molecular Genetics, "CARISBO Foundation", Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mattei
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Isacco
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Montroni
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zattoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghignone
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Veronese
authors.affiliation: Biosciences Laboratory, Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCSS, Meldola, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marisi
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.|Centre of Molecular Genetics, "CARISBO Foundation", Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mattia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lauriola
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.|Centre of Molecular Genetics, "CARISBO Foundation", Bologna, Italy.|Interdepartmental Center for Cancer Research "Giorgio Prodi" (CIRC), S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Pierluigi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Strippoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), Unit of Histology, Embryology and Applied Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.|Centre of Molecular Genetics, "CARISBO Foundation", Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Solmi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D024042:Collagen Type I / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D037541:Galectin 4 / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D012372:ROC Curve; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D059470:Tetraspanins / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C504117:CEACAM6 protein, human; C000601279:COL1A2 protein, human; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D024042:Collagen Type I; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D037541:Galectin 4; C511927:LGALS4 protein, human; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C065609:TSPAN8 protein, human; D059470:Tetraspanins
keywords: CRC: colorectal cancer; CTC: circulating tumour cells; TRAM: Transcriptome Mapper