Conserved serum protein biomarkers associated with growing early colorectal adenomas

Significance The premalignant colonic adenoma presents a long-lived target to prevent colon cancer. The levels of peptide biomarkers for four serum proteins—F5, ITIH4, LRG1, and VTN—are each elevated in sera in two adenoma-bearing animal models and in patients. The elevated levels of these serum proteins are correlated with total colonic adenoma number in the rat model. Longitudinal analysis of patients demonstrated their association with the...