Table 1.
CRC and non-CRC control characteristics
| Argentina | Chile | India | Vietnam | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRC | NC | CRC | NC | CRC | NC | CRC | NC | |
| Number of participants | 10 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Male | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Median age (range) | 81 (61–89) | 55.5 (37–72) | 70 (56–86) | 34 (22–75) | 56.5 (33–73) | 34 (26–45) | 58 (49–88) | 58.5 (37–71) |
| MW p = 4.4 × 10−4 | MW p = 3.5 × 10−3 | MW p = 1 × 10−3 | ||||||
| History of colonoscopya | 10 | 10 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| FE p < 1 × 10−5 | FE p = 7 × 10−4 | |||||||
| Medication use | 9 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| FE p = 3 × 10−2 | ||||||||
| Comorbiditiesb | 8 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| FE p = 3.1 × 10−3 | ||||||||
| Current smokerc | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Drinks alcohol | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| FE p = 2.4 × 10−2 | ||||||||
| Vegetarian | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
CRC CRC patient, NC non-CRC control
Mann-Whitney (MW) and Fisher’s exact test (FE) were performed to assess intra-country differences; hypotheses were two-tailed with a significance level of 0.05. Significant differences are in bold and the p value stated
aHistory of colonoscopy indicates whether participants had ever had a colonoscopy with bowel preparation prior to sample collection
bComorbidities included in our population profile, but not as substantial analysis covariates: hypertension, gastric ulcer, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, insulin resistance/diabetes, thyroid disease, obesity, and hypercholesterolaemia
cCurrent smoker includes participants who stopped smoking within the preceding month