## 3 Results  
### Colorectal Cancer Patients and Controls  
One hundred and thirty-eight individuals were involved in this study. They were divided into two groups--CRC (\(n\) = 89) and Control (\(n\) = 49). The anthropometric and demographic characteristics of the cohort are presented in Table 1. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Variables**} & **CRC** & **Control** \\  & **(\(n\) = 89)** & **(\(n\) = 49)** \\ \hline Age, years: mean (range) & 69.10 (40-90) & 54.50 (42–77) \\ Women & 25 (42.37\%) & 33 (67.35\%) \\ Men & 34 (57.63\%) & 16 (32.65\%) \\ BMI [kg/m\({}^{2}\)]: range & 25.18 (18.82–33.91) & 25.88 (18.22–39.44) \\ BMI \(<\) 25 & 27 (45.76\%) & 24 (50\%) \\ BMI \(\geq\) 25 & 32 (54.24\%) & 24 (50\%) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Colorectal cancer, CRC; Body Mass Index, BMI.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Anthropometric and demographic characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and healthy controls (Control). The mean age of CRC patients was 69.10 years, and that of the control group was 54.50 years. Both the CRC and Control groups were additionally subdivided according to BMI [kg/m\({}^{2}\)] and sex. Of the CRC group, 57.63% were men and 42.37% were women. In the Control group, the proportions of men and women were 32.65% and 67.35%, respectively. Individuals with BMI < 25 comprised 45.76% and 50% of the CRC and Control groups, respectively. Overweight subjects (BMI \(\geq\) 25) represented 54.24% and 50%, respectively, of the CRC and Control groups. Plasma UA concentrations were significantly higher in the CRC group (333.67 \(\pm\) 13.05 vs. 295.88 \(\pm\) 13.78, \(p\) < 0.05). All of the rest of the studied parameters were detected at lower concentrations in the CRC group as follows: lactate by 24% (2.21 \(\pm\) 0.11 vs. 2.88 \(\pm\) 0.19, \(p\) < 0.01), Na\({}^{+}\) by 2% (130.79 \(\pm\) 0.42 vs. 133.23 \(\pm\) 0.25, \(p\) < 0.001), Cl\({}^{-}\) by 1.3% (102.59 \(\pm\) 0.45 vs. 103.94 \(\pm\) 0.23, \(p\) < 0.01), and osmolality by 2% (266.44 \(\pm\) 0.86 vs. 271.72 \(\pm\) 0.62, \(p\) < 0.001) (Figure 1). An ROC curve analysis for diagnostic potential revealed that lactate, UA, osmolality, Na\({}^{+}\), and Cl\({}^{-}\) plasma concentrations are parameters that can distinguish between the CRC and Control groups. Na\({}^{+}\) and osmolality showed satisfactory diagnostic potential, and plasma lactate, UA, and Cl\({}^{-}\) showed low diagnostic potential (Figure 2). Figure 1: _Cont._  
Figure 1: Plasma concentrations of studied parameters in Control and CRC groups (median Control/CRC): (**a**) UA (282.50/320.00); (**b**) lactate (2.60/2.20); (**c**) Na\({}^{+}\) (133.00/131.00); (**d**) Cl\({}^{-}\) (104.00/103.00); (**e**) osmolality (271.00/267.00). * \(p\) \(<\) 0.05; **_p_ \(<\) 0.01; ***_p_ \(<\) 0.001 vs. Control. Figure 2: Cont. We subdivided both the CRC and Control groups according to sex in order to check for gender-dependent differences within the groups, as well as to compare same-gender subgroups between the CRC and Control groups. Plasma UA concentrations were significantly higher in men with CRC (362.55 \(\pm\) 16.12 vs. 292.24 \(\pm\) 19.63, \(p\) < 0.01). Comparison between the CRC and Control groups showed that men with CRC had lower levels of lactate (2.11 \(\pm\) 0.14 vs. 2.84 \(\pm\) 0.14, \(p\) < 0.001), Na\({}^{+}\) (130.12 \(\pm\) 0.53 vs. 133.00 \(\pm\) 0.33, \(p\) < 0.001), and osmolality (265.14 \(\pm\) 1.05 vs. 271.16 \(\pm\) 0.60, \(p\) < 0.001) than men in the Control group. Women with CRC had lower levels of plasma osmolality (268.30 \(\pm\) 1.41 vs. 271.99 \(\pm\) 0.91, \(p\) < 0.05) and Cl\({}^{-}\) (103.54 \(\pm\) 0.53 vs. 104.22 \(\pm\) 0.28, \(p\) < 0.05) than women in the Control group (Table 2). We subdivided both groups according to BMI in order to test whether the studied parameters depended on body composition.