Fecal long chain fatty acids and colon cancer risk.

To determine whether excretion of high concentrations of long chain fatty acids might be associated with high colon cancer risk, we compared concentrations of major long chain fatty acids in the feces of four populations at different risk for colon cancer. Concentrations of C18:1 were found to be significantly higher (P less than 0.05) in the feces of the two high risk populations than in the feces of the two low risk populations.