Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Research Article

Digit Ratio is Associated with Colorectal Cancer

Renato Nicolas Hopp^*, Nathalia Caroline de Souza Lima, Marcondes Sena Filho, José Laurentino Ferreira Filho and Jacks Jorge

Department of Oral Diagnosis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brasil

Corresponding Author:

Renato Nicolás Hopp
Department of Oral Diagnosis
Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Avenida Limeira, 901, Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brasil
Tel: 551921065317
E-mail: renhopp@gmail.com

Received Date: July 07, 2014; Accepted Date: January 06, 2015; Published Date: January 20, 2015

Citation: Hopp RN, Lima NCDS, Filho MS, Filho JLF, Jorge J (2015) Digit Ratio is Associated with Colorectal Cancer. J Gastrointest Dig Syst 5:253. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000253

Copyright: © 2015 Hopp RN, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Prenatal testosterone and estrogen exposure may influence disease susceptibility. Digit ratio (2D:4D) is a putative marker for prenatal hormone exposure and sensitivity, as well as the action of genes related to malignancies. Therefore, 2D:4D could act as a marker for cancer predisposition.

Aims: Investigate the possible correlation between R2D:4D, L2D:4D and right minus left. 2D:4D (Δr-l) and colorectal cancer (CRC) in men and women and assess correlations with tumor staging and histological diagnosis.

Methods: Digital images of the right and left hand palms of patients diagnosed with CRC (n=139) and age and sex-matched controls (n=139) were used to measure the 2nd and 4th fingers. Means for 2D:4D were compared. Data were analyzed by intraclass correlation coefficient, Student's t-test, Kendall’s tau b and Spearman’s rho (α=0.05).

Results: CRC group presented significantly higher right and left 2D:4D (p=0.00001 and p=0.00005, respectively) in comparison to healthy controls. R2D:4D was negatively correlated to tumor differentiation (p=0.02) while L2D:4D was positively correlated to tumor size (p=0.03).

Conclusions: Prenatal estrogen and testosterone seem to play a role on the malignant transformation and progression of colorectal cancer. The findings suggest that 2D:4D could add to the list of etiological factors and be a putative marker for the screening of patients’ susceptibility to develop colorectal cancer.

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