Serum vimentin methylation as a potential marker for colorectal cancer

The present study aimed to examine the feasibility of detecting vimentin (VIM) methylation in the serum of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and to determine the effectiveness of a relatively simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive test performed in combination with the conventional carcinoembryonic antigen analysis. VIM methylation in the serum DNA of 242 patients with CRC was measured by a quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. A significantly higher positive rate was obtained for VIM methylation than for carcinoembryonic antigen or carbohydrate antigen 19-9 in stage 0, I, and II patients. The combination of all three markers yielded similar sensitivity for patients with disease of stage 0: 57.1%, I: 36.1%, II: 45.2%, and III: 55.4%, whereas the sensitivity reached 85.7% for patients with stage IV disease. VIM methylation of serum DNA may be a useful marker for the early detection of CRC.