NDRG4 Methylation Change: A Promising Biomarker in Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most widespread Cancers across the world. Notwithstanding the diagnoses and treatments developed over thepast four decades, patients' survival rate has improved moderately; and yet, it still has a 5-year survival rate of less than 50%.In this study, hypermethylation of the NDRG4 gene was evaluated as a biomarker in CRC screening.

70samples were examined in this case-control study (45 CRC patients versus 25 healthy controls) totally, and Methylation-Specific PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique was used to investigate the NDRG4 methylation situation in plasma samples.

The mean age in the control group and CRC patients was 58.4±3.4 years and 64.6±4.4 years, respectively. The male to female ratio in the control group and CRC patients was 1.5:1 and 1.1:1, respectively. Gastrointestinal disease history was positive in 12% and 33% of patients in the control group and CRC patients. In this study, NDRG4 gene hypermethylation was observed in 53.3% of patients, while it was shown in only 23.3% of healthy controls.

The results showed that NDRG4 could be a prognostic biomarker in CRC diagnosis and screen as a noninvasive blood-based biomarker