The Role of Fecal Fusobacterium nucleatum and pks+ Escherichia coli as Early Diagnostic Markers of Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Background. Accurate analysis of intestinal microbiota will facilitate establishment of an evaluating system for assessing colorectal cancer (CRC) risk and prognosis. This study evaluates the potential role of Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) and Escherichia coli with a pks gene (pks+ E. coli) in early CRC diagnosis. Methods. We recruited 139 patients, including CRC ( $n=60$ ), colorectal adenomatous polyposis (CAP) ( $n=37$ ), and healthy individuals ( $n=42$ ) based on their colonoscopy examinations. We collected stool and serum samples from the participants and measured the relative abundance of F. nucleatum and pks+ E. coli in fecal samples by quantitative PCR. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were used to analyze the diagnostic value of single or combined biomarkers. Results. Fecal F. nucleatum and pks+ E. coli levels were higher in the CRC group in either the CAP group or healthy controls ( $P=0.02$ ; 0.01). There was no statistical difference in the distribution of F. nucleatum and pks+ E. coli in patients with different tumor sites ( $P>0.05$ ). The combination of F. nucleatum+pks+ E. coli+CEA+CA19-9+FOBT was chosen as the optimal panel in differentiating both CRC and CAP from the controls. The combination of F. nucleatum, pks+ E. coli, and FOBT improved diagnostic efficiency. However, there was difficulty in differentiating CRC from CAP. Conclusion. Our results suggested that combining bacterial markers with conventional tumor markers improves the diagnostic efficiency for noninvasive diagnosis of CRC.