Abstract
The present invention provides compositions, methods and kits for diagnosing cancer, specifically the diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). More specifically, the invention provides simple assays, with high sensitivity and specificity for CRC, wherein a panel of microRNA (miRNA) are used as biomarkers.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer and second leading cause of cancer-related death in the US
The aim of the present study is to identify a set of colon cancerspecific miRNAs that will be suitable for the detection of occult metastases in regional lymph nodes
Five miRNAs were found to be under-expressed/ not-expressed in normal lymphatic tissue and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) (Suppl. data 2) and were selected
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer and second leading cause of cancer-related death in the US. The survival and prognosis of colorectal cancer patients depends mainly on the disease stage at the time of detection. Global 5-year survival of patients without lymph node involvement (Stage I and II) is around 80% which drops if positive lymph nodes or distant metastasis are detected (stage 3 and 4) [3,4]. It has been proven that adjuvant chemotherapy treatment for patients detected with lymph nodes metastases (AJCC Stage III), significantly improves patient survival [7]. Patients diagnosed with AJCC stage II colon cancer, presented only marginal improvement to adjuvant chemotherapy. Out of this group of patients, approximately 20-25% will develop recurrence of disease within 5 years after surgery [3,4,8,9]. The ability to identify patients liable to relapse and to treat them before the onset of distant metastases may improve their survival [5,10,11]
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