Abstract B38: Early-onset colorectal cancer gene-expression profiling: An analysis of TCGA data

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 2nd and 1st leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and women in the US and Puerto Rico, respectively. CRC is associated with aging; however, the incidence of sporadic, early-onset ( Method: RNAseq data from individuals 65 years was performed using edgeR (https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/ bioc/html/edgeR.htm). Only genes with at least two counts per million (CPM) in at least 60 samples were further analyzed. False discovery rate (FDR) was set to less than 5% in the analysis. Results: A total of 373 individuals with CRC were available using TCGA data: 60 with early onset ( Conclusion: This is the first characterization of gene expression profiles in early-onset CRC patients included in the TCGA database. The observed differences in gene expression have to be further analyzed in order to gain insight into the molecular pathways leading to sporadic early-onset CRC. Furthermore, a more comprehensive understanding of the biology of sporadic early-onset CRC is needed in order to directly address this emerging public health problem and to subsequently shift current clinical practices for young patients falling outside of current screening guidelines across the cancer continuum, from prevention strategies to screening and/or treatment. Citation Format: Maria Gonzalez-Pons, Luis Vazquez, Marcia Cruz-Correa. Early-onset colorectal cancer gene-expression profiling: An analysis of TCGA data. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B38.