The present invention provides methods and materials related to the detection of colorectal
neoplasm-specific markers (e.g., markers associated with
colorectal cancer, markers associated with
adenoma) in or associated with a subject's
stool sample. In particular, the present invention provides methods and materials for identifying mammals (e.g., humans) having a colorectal
neoplasm by detecting the presence and level of indicators of colorectal neoplasia such as, for example, long
DNA (e.g., quantified by Alu PCR) and the presence and level of tumor-associated
gene alterations (e.g., mutations in
KRAS, APC,
melanoma antigen gene, p53, BRAF, BAT26, PIK3CA) or epigenetic alterations (e.g.,
DNA methylation) (e.g., CpG
methylation) (e.g., CpG
methylation in coding or regulatory regions of bmp-3, bmp-4, SFRP2,
vimentin, septin9, ALX4, EYA4, TFPI2, NDRG4, FOXE1) in
DNA from a
stool sample obtained from the
mammal.