PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sutherland, Stephanie
AU  - Jiang, Alice
AU  - Melson, Joshua
AU  - Buckingham, Lela
TI  - Influences of Patient Characteristics on the Predictive Value of Molecular Biomarkers of Colon Cancer in Tubular Adenomas
AID  - 10.29074/ascls.2020002790
DP  - 2024 May 01
TA  - American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
4099  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2024/05/07/ascls.2020002790.short
4100  - http://hwmaint.clsjournal.ascls.org/content/early/2024/05/07/ascls.2020002790.full
AB  - Colonoscopy provides early detection of colon adenocarcinoma and reduces cancer threat through removal of precancerous adenomas or polyps. Molecular analysis of precancerous polyps could provide information for patient care, eg, scheduling future colonoscopy tests. This study describes potential effects of demographic factors in assessing proposed epigenetic biomarkers (long-interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) hypomethylation and genetic mutations) in colon polyps from patients who underwent 2 colonoscopies within 7 years. Polyps from patients for whom cancer or polyps were found in the second colonoscopy were compared with those for whom no lesions were found in the second test. LINE-1 methylation was measured by pyrosequencing and gene mutations were detected by next-generation sequencing. Gene mutations were similar for both groups in a small subset of polyps adequate for sequencing. Among cases with metachronous lesions, 36% of the index polyps (polyps from the first colonoscopy) had at least 1 gene mutation, whereas 43% of the secondary polyps had gene mutations. LINE-1 methylation was significantly higher in polyps collected from patients with metachronous lesions (P < .001); however, confounding influences of demographics were observed. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of assessing molecular biomarkers in polyps with consideration of patient characteristics to make prognostic predictions.