Circulating molecular biomarkers for screening or early diagnosis of colorectal cancer: which is ready for prime time?

CRC is a very frequent disease, accounting for as many as 1.85 million of new cases each year, and thus being currently considered the second most frequent malignancy in women after breast cancer and the third most common malignant disease in men after lung and prostate cancers (1). Several lines of evidence now attest that the prognosis of this cancer is highly dependent on early diagnosis, whereby the 5-year cumulative survival rate decreases from 90% when CRC is diagnosed at an early stage, to ~15% in patients with advanced, metastatic disease (1)