Abstract:

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Screening high-risk populations for colorectal cancer can lower both the incidence of and deaths from the disease. Mutation detection in fecal DNA is a new approach of screening patients for colorectal cancer. Compared with colonoscopy and fecal occult-blood test, this approach has the advantages of high specificity, high sensitivity and general acceptability. This paper systematically reviewed genes associated with fecal DNA testing, methods for extracting tumor-specific DNA, and methods for detecting gene mutations. Moreover, the application of mutation detection using fecal DNA for rapid screening of colorectal cancer was briefly discussed.