Colorectal cancer screening programs aim at early detection of
cancer to reduce incidence rates and mortality. The objective of this study is to identify the role of
neurotensin in the endoscopic screening of high-risk population for developing colorectal
neoplasia. Blood samples from patients referred for urgent colonoscopy to investigate symptoms suspicious of
colorectal cancer were collected. Blood
neurotensin levels were measured using
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay. Colonoscopy findings were used as reference for determining the diagnostic accuracy of blood
neurotensin. The study comprised 26 patients in total: 12 healthy and 14 with colon pathology (13 high-grade dysplasia
adenomatous polyps, 1
adenocarcinoma). There were no statistically significant differences in the clinical and biochemical parameters between colon pathology and healthy group except
neurotensin levels. Pathology in colon was associated with 3.7-fold increase in NT levels. In multivariate analysis, patients with pathology in colon have increased serum
neurotensin levels compared to controls adjusted for age, gender, BMI and co-morbidities. The value of 12.93 pg/ml is associated with 87.5% sensitivity and 91.7% specificity for discriminating the colon pathology from normal colonic epithelium (p = 0.001).
Neurotensin plasma values differentiate healthy people from patients suffering from colonic pathologies such as
adenomatous polyps and
cancer. The use of
neurotensin as a potential endoscopic screening tool for identifying high-risk population for developing
colorectal cancer is promising, but much has to be done before it is validated in larger scale prospective studies.