Tumor-educated circulating monocytes are powerful specific biomarkers for diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Homo sapiens

Analysis of tumor-educated changes in peripheral blood monocytes at the gene expression level. We analyzed if gene expression in monocytes of patients with colorectal cancer is differential from those of healthy volunteers and found a diagnostic signature that allowed to accurately discriminate patients with colorectal cancer from healthy individuals. Overall design: Peripheral blood monocytes from 93 distinct individuals are profiled on 8 beadchips. The individuals belong to one of three groups: healthy volunteers (38), patients with non-metastatic colorectal cancer (27) or patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (28).