Biomedical Research 2006; 17 (2): 149-154 Short communication Amino acid profiles among colorectal cancer patients Abdulbari Bener 1,2 , Muzeyyen Dogan 3 , Ismail Abou Azab 4 , Ali Rashed 5 , Midhat Siddiqui 6 1 Department of Medical Statistics & Epidemiology, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation Doha, State of Qatar 2 Department Evidence for Population Health Unit, School of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom 3 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 4 Department of Surgery, Al-Ain Hospital, MOH, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates 5 Department of Oncology, Tawam Hospital, GAHS, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates 6 Department of Surgery, Queen Mary Hospital, NHS, London, United Kingdom Key Words: Epidemiology. Case-control. Colorectal cancer. Amino acid. UAE Accepted May 24 2006 Abstract The aim of this study is to determine the amino acid profile among the colorectal cancer pa- tients. This is a prospective descriptive case-control study. This study includes 108 patients who underwent surgeries for colorectal carcinoma and 108 healthy control subjects during the period from1998 to 2003. The patients' data included: age, gender, pathological data and p53 expression. We performed the avidin-biotin complex immunoperoxidase method to de- tect bound p53 protein. An analysis with the Ion Exchange Chromatography was carried out for individual free amino acids. IgG antibodies against a low molecular weight fraction of H. pylori antigens were measured in duplicate with a validated in house indirect enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]. Mean annual incidence was 3.1 patients / year. There were 74 males (68.5%) and 34 females (31.5%). The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 47.2 ± 9.7 years with the median age of 47 years. H. pylori serology was determined in all subjects. The sensitivity values for IgG and IgA H .pylori serology tests were 74% and 51% respectively (p<0.001). There was statis- tically significant difference between cancer patients and healthy control group concerning IgG (p<0.018). The study results revealed that the plasma amino acid concentrations (essen- tial and non-essential amino acids) were higher among cancer patients than among the healthy control subjects. The incidence pattern of colorectal carcinoma is similar to that of the neighboring Gulf and Arab countries. The results revealed that the plasma amino acid concentrations were higher among colorectal cancer patients than among the control sub- jects. Introduction Colorectal cancer is one of the most common human ma- lignancies, and has been well documented [1]. Carcinoma of the colon and rectum accounts for more than 150,000 deaths annually worldwide. It is considered the second most frequent cause of death in most of the Western Countries after lung cancer in men and breast and lung cancer in women [2]. Microsatellite instability (MSI) is one form of genomic instability that occurs in 10% to 20% of sporadic colon tumors and almost all of the he- reditary non-polyposis colon cancers [3]. However, little is known about how environmental factors (e.g., diet) may influence MSI in sporadic colon cancer. Colon can- cer is common in women and rectal cancer is common in men [4,5] Furthermore, some study showed that colorec- tal cancer is the leading type of cancer in Western coun- tries. Over the last decades, the trend of colorectal cancer