%0 Journal Article %A EBRU E. YÖRÜKER %A EMRE ÖZGÜR %A METIN KESKIN %A NEJAT DALAY %A STEFAN HOLDENRIEDER %A UGUR GEZER %T Assessment of Circulating Serum DNA Integrity in Colorectal Cancer Patients %D 2015 %J Anticancer Research %P 2435-2440 %V 35 %N 4 %X Background /Aim: Studies evaluating the integrity of cell-fee DNA (cfDNA) in colorectal cancer (CRC) have led to inconsistent results. Herein, we analyzed the utility of two different DNA integrity indexes (ACTB384/ACTB106 and ALU247/ALU115) to assess cfDNA fragmentation in Turkish CRC patients. The correlation of circulating nucleosomes (cNUC) with the fragment sizes was also evaluated. Materials and Methods: Seventy two CRC patients and 42 CRC-free control individuals were enrolled in the study. cfDNA was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Results: While with ALU247/ALU115there was a small difference between the groups, an approximately 3-fold (median values=0.12 and 0.34) lower integrity was found in the patients using the ACTB384/ACTB106 ratio (p=0.06). The correlation between cNUC and qPCR threshold cycles was much higher for shorter fragments. Conclusion: Lower DNA integrity and the predominance of mononuclesomes in serum reveal high fragmentation of cfDNA in CRC patients. %U https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/anticanres/35/4/2435.full.pdf