Quantitative fluorescence determination of long-fragment DNA in stool as a marker for the early detection of colorectal cancer

Background: A variety of molecular markers have been evaluated for the development of a non-invasive approach to the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. We aimed to validate the diagnostic accuracy, using the same threshold as in the previous pilot study, of fluorescent long DNA test as a relatively simple and inexpensive tool for colorectal cancer detection.Methods: A case-control study was conducted on 100 healthy subjects and 100 patients at first diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Human long-fragment DNA in stool was quantified by fluorescence primers and a standard curve and expressed in DNA nanograms.Results: We validated the 25-ng value, which emerged as the most accurate cut-off in the pil…