Abstract
Introduction. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important global burden, and the discovery of biomarkers for screening and monitoring is a current challenge. The present study aimed to determine the serum concentration of ROBO4 and CLEC14A in CRC patients and assess the diagnostic and progression value of these biomarkers in CRC. Material and methods. Serum samples were collected from 32 patients with CRC and from 16 healthy individuals. Blood serum of CRC patients were tested before and after surgery. Serum concentration of ROBO4 and CLEC14A were measured using ELISA tests. Results. The serum concentrations of ROBO4 and CLEC14A were significantly higher in CRC patients than non-cancer controls. The sensitivitiy and specificity of ROBO4 and CLEC14A in distiguishing cancer patients from controls ranged from 71.9% to 100% and from 84.5% to 100%, respectively. The serum ROBO4 concentration was associated with the TNM stage, depth of invasion, and lymph node and distant metastases. The level of ROBO4 was statistically lower 3 months after the surgery, compared to the level noted prior to the operation. Conclusions. Our preliminary study has provided evidence that ROBO4 and CLEC14A seem to be suitable biomarkers for clinical diagnostic purposes in colorectal cancer.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important global burden, and the discovery of biomarkers for screening and monitoring is a current challenge
The serum levels of ROBO4 and C-type lectin family 14 member A (CLEC14A) in early-stage (TNM I+II) colorectal cancer (CRC) patients were compared with healthy individuals
To the best of our knowladge, the present study investigated the serum level of ROBO4 and CLEC14A in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients for the first time
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important global burden, and the discovery of biomarkers for screening and monitoring is a current challenge. The present study aimed to determine the serum concentration of ROBO4 and CLEC14A in CRC patients and assess the diagnostic and progression value of these biomarkers in CRC. Blood serum of CRC patients were tested before and after surgery. The serum concentrations of ROBO4 and CLEC14A were significantly higher in CRC patients than non-cancer controls. Since colorectal cancer presents clear symptoms only in advanced stages and there are no sensitive and accurate diagnostic methods, the detection of CRC in early stages is problematic and difficult [5]. Several investigations have indicated that two proteins (ROBO4 and CLEC14A) among TEMs are overexpressed on the surface of tumor endothelial cells in a wide range of solid tumors (ovary, prostate, breast, liver, bladder, kidney, and lung) [15, 16]. It has been proved that blocking ROBO activity can cause inhibition of tumor mass [22]
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