RNA-sequencing of blood platelet RNA for the early detection of colorectal cancer

The RNA profiles of tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) possess pathological features that could be used for early cancer detection. This study evaluated the differentiating diagnostic capacity of TEP RNA profiles in a cohort of patients with CRC and noncancerous diseases. We performed transcriptome sequencing for platelets isolated from 132 patients with CRC at early and late stages, and 190 controls consisting of healthy donor, patients with ulcerative disease, Crohn's disease, polyps and adenomas. Platelets were isolated from 5 mL purple-capped vacutainers equipped with the anti-coagulant EDTAK2. The total RNA was purified with Direct-zol RNA Miniprep and then subjected to cDNA synthesis and amplification using SMARTer kit. Finally, we pooled high-quality samples with product sizes ranged in 300-500 bp in equimolar concentrations, then submitted for 100 bp Paired-Read sequencing on the Illumina HiSeq X-ten.