Table 1.

Fecal samples’ demographic, clinical, and technical details

Cohort	Factor	Control	CRC	P value	Sample collection	Sequencing platform
Cohort C1 (American, 2016)	Sample size	52	48	NA	Prior to surgery and treatment	Sequencing Platform: Illumina Hiseq 2000/2500; Sequencing Target Depth: 5GB; read length: 100 bp
	Age	61.23(11.03)	60.96(13.56)	0.913
	Gender	Male:37; Female:15	Male:35; Female:13	1
	BMI	25.35(4.27)	24.90(4.29)	0.601
Cohort C2 (Austrian, 2014)	Sample size	63	46	NA	Not available
	Age	67.1(6.37)	67.1(10.91)	0.999
	Gender	Male:37; Female:26	Male:28; Female:18	0.978
	BMI	27.57(3.78)	26.50(3.53)	0.132
Cohort C3 (Chinese, 2015)	Sample size	92	73	NA	No antibiotics and no invasive medical intervention for 3 months; no vegetarian diet; no history of cancer or inflammatory disease of intestine
	Age	58.51(7.55)	65.90(10.61)	< 0.0001
	Gender	Male:51; Female:41	Male:47; Female:26	0.316
	BMI	23.87(3.31)	24.07(3.18)	0.697
Cohort C4 (German and French, 2014)	Sample size	64	88	NA	No previous colon or rectal surgery, colorectal cancer, inflammatory, or infectious injuries of the intestine; no need for need for emergency colonoscopy
	Age	58.75(12.96)	68.44(12.22)	0.007
	Gender	Male:32; Female:32	Male:53; Female:35	0.276
	BMI	24.72(3.19)	25.89(4.29)	0.056