Prevention is essential to reduce Colorectal Cancer (CRC) mortality. We previously reported a panel of four genes: CEACAM6, LGALS4, TSPAN8, COL1A2 (CELTiC) able to discriminate patients with CRC. Here, we assessed the CELTiC panel by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, in the blood of 174 healthy subjects, who resulted negative to the faecal immunochemical test (FITN). Using non-parametric statistic and multinomial logistic models, the FITN were compared to previously analysed subjects: 36 false positive FIT (NFIT), who were negative at colonoscopy, 36 patients with low risk lesions (LR) and 92 patients with high risk lesions or CRC (HR/CRC). FITN showed a significantly lower expression of the four genes when compared to HR/CRC. Moreover, FITN showed a significantly lower expression of TSPAN8 and COL1A2 compared to NFIT and LR patients.

The multinomial logistic model confirmed that TSPAN8 alone specifically discriminated FITN from NFIT, LR and HR/CRC, while LGALS4 was able to differentiate FITN from false positive FIT. Finally, ROC curves analysis of the comparisons between FITN and HR/CRC, LR or NFIT reported AUC greater than 0.87, with a sensitivity and specificity of 83% and 76%, respectively. The CELTiC panel was confirmed a useful tool to identify CRC patients and to discriminate false FIT positive subjects.

预防对于降低结直肠癌（CRC）死亡率至关重要。我们之前报道了一组四个基因：CEACAM6，LGALS4，TSPAN8，COL1A2（CELTiC）能够区分CRC患者。在这里，我们通过定量聚合酶链反应评估了174名健康受试者的血液中的CELTiC样本，这些受试者的粪便免疫化学测试（FITN）结果为阴性。使用非参数统计和多项逻辑模型，将FITN与先前分析的受试者进行比较：36例假阳性FIT（NFIT）在结肠镜检查中阴性，36例低危病变（LR）和92例高危病变或CRC（HR / CRC）。与HR / CRC相比，FITN显示这四个基因的表达明显降低。此外，FITN显示的显著较低表达TSPAN8和COL1A2与NFIT和LR患者相比。

多项式逻辑模型证实，仅TSPAN8就能将FITN与NFIT，LR和HR / CRC进行特异性区分，而LGALS4能够将FITN与假阳性FIT区分开。最后，对FITN与HR / CRC，LR或NFIT进行比较的ROC曲线分析显示AUC大于0.87，敏感性和特异性分别为83％和76％。CELTiC小组被确认为识别CRC患者和区分假FIT阳性受试者的有用工具。