title: Early Assessment of Colorectal Cancer by Quantifying Circulating Tumor Cells in Peripheral Blood: ECT2 in Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer.
abstract: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood is an indication of poor prognosis for patients with different cancer types. However, most of the available technologies for detecting CTCs show low sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, we attempted to find an alternative marker for CTCs of colorectal cancer. We have directly extracted RNA from CTCs contained in 1.5 mL peripheral blood from 90 colorectal cancer patients and 151 healthy donors, and screened these samples for candidate marker genes by nested real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). From genes selected from a public database of microarray analyses, we successfully identified epithelial cell transforming sequence 2 oncogene (ECT2) as a gene that exhibits high differential expression ratios (p< 0.01). ECT2 displays good sensitivity and specificity, with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.821. This marker gene also has a high detection rate in patients with serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentrations below the diagnostic threshold of 5 ng/mL. The expression of ECT2 can therefore serve as an alternative measurement that can compensate for the inadequacy of the current CEA test in the diagnosis and monitoring of colorectal cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 8864, Taiwan. 132540@cch.org.tw.|Department of Medical Technology, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli 88637, Taiwan. 132540@cch.org.tw.|School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. 132540@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Chih-Jung
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Technology, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli 88637, Taiwan. flutewayne@gmail.com.|School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. flutewayne@gmail.com.|Department of Urology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. flutewayne@gmail.com.|Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. flutewayne@gmail.com.|Department of Medical Education, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. flutewayne@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wen-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan. 54464@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Hung-Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 8862, Taiwan. yijyechern@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yi-Jye
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chern
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 8864, Taiwan. javawomanfanny@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hui-Ting
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 8864, Taiwan. 93668@cch.org.tw.|Department of Medical Technology, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli 88637, Taiwan. 93668@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Yueh-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 8864, Taiwan. 74630@cch.org.tw.|Department of Medical Technology, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Miaoli 88637, Taiwan. 74630@cch.org.tw.|Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichuang 8864, Taiwan. 74630@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Shu-Hui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 8862, Taiwan. freeman641016@yahoo.com.tw.
authors.forename: Konan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peck
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua 8864, Taiwan. 10159@cch.org.tw.|School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung 8864, Taiwan. 10159@cch.org.tw.
authors.forename: Kun-Tu
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Yeh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; C489850:ECT2 protein, human; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins
keywords: CEA; ECT2; biomarker; circulating tumor cell; colorectal cancer