The Preliminary Study for the Trial of Using Selected miRNAs for the Laboratory Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer in Europe. There is a need to explore and validate new blood-based tumor markers to improve the selection of patients who are likely to benefit from an early, non-invasive diagnosis of CRC. The purpose of this report is to present the test protocol and its verification. The study is planned in four phases. The first trial phase involves collecting material, consisting of healthy tissue, diseased tissue, and plasma, from 120 CRC patients over 50 years old during surgery. This phase also involves identifying microRNAs (miRNAs) and comparing their expressed levels in colorectal cancer cells with those in healthy tissue taken from a standard resection margin. We detected measurable levels of miRNAs in tissue samples taken from patients, confirming that the material was correctly removed for testing. Statistically significant differences were obtained between healthy and cancerous tissue for selected miRNAs. Some of the selected miRNAs have higher expression levels in CRC tissue and could be potential candidate biomarkers for laboratory-based colorectal cancer diagnosis.