Fecal lysozyme: an unreliable marker for colorectal cancer

High levels of lysozyme have been reported to be present in the feces of patients with colorectal cancer. It has been suggested that fecal lysozyme could prove useful in the early detection of colorectal cancer, but that further work is needed. The present investigation reports on the measurement of fecal lysozyme in 23 colorectal cancer patients and 39 healthy controls. The mean fecal lysozyme level for the cases was 13.3 +/- 2.8 micrograms/g stool compared with 12.5 +/- 2.6 micrograms/g stool for the controls. The median level for the cases was 8.7 micrograms/g stool compared with 6.6 micrograms/g stool for the controls. Forty-three percent of the cases and 31% of the controls had fecal lysozyme levels above 10 micrograms/g stool. None of these differences were statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that fecal lysozyme would be of no use in the early detection of colorectal cancer.