Table 1.

Clinical and pathological characteristics of CRC patients and healthy controls

	Exploratory cohort (n = 105)		P value	Validation cohort (n = 297)		P value
	CRC patients n = 76	Healthy controls n = 29		CRC patients n = 159	Healthy controls n = 138
Age (yr)
≤ 55	12	6	0.474	29	35	0.137
> 55	64	23		130	103
Gender
Male	42	15	0.745	105	72	0.015
Female	34	14		54	66
Diagnosis (ICD) and disease stage
C18		–			–
Stage I	12			11
Stage II	12			22
Stage III	10			31
Stage IV	4			19
C19		–			–
Stage I	2			1
Stage II	2			12
Stage III	4			10
Stage IV	3			8
C20		–			–
Stage I	5			18
Stage II	9			15
Stage III	7			6
Stage IV	6			6

ICD International Classification of Diseases, C18 malignant neoplasm of the colon, C19 malignant neoplasm of the rectosigmoid, C20 malignant neoplasm of the rectum. P value for Pearson’s χ² test