Reduced levels of hydroxylated, polyunsaturated ultra long-chain fatty acids in the serum of colorectal cancer patients: implications for early screening and detection

"There are currently no accurate serum markers for detecting early risk of colorectal cancer (CRC)."
"There is consensus in the field that the use of colonoscopy alone for CRC screening is not practical, and that a minimally invasive serum-based test capable of accurately identifying subjects who are high risk for the development of CRC would result in a higher screening compliance than current approaches and better utilization of existing endoscopy resources....... Furthermore, most of the tests currently used or in development are based upon the detection of tumour-specific markers and have poor sensitivity for identifying subjects who are either very early stage, or are predisposed to risk but show no clinical presentation of disease."