LCA and DCA are secondary bile acids formed from CDCA and CA in the colon. The ratio when high or low has been found useful to check risk for several conditions such as colorectal cancer and gall stones.
-------
LCA and DCA are secondary bile acids.
What are bile acids?
Bile acids are the final product of cholesterol metabolism in the liver. They play an important role in fat digestion and absorption. The primary bile acids are chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) and cholic acid (CA).
These bile acids can be converted into secondary bile acids in the colon.
CDCA is converted into lithocholic acid (LCA) and CA is converted into deoxycholic acid (DCA).
What are secondary bile acids?
These secondary bile acids are associated with disease. An LCA:DCA ratio greater than 1 is associated with increased risk of gallstones, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer.
Colonic bacteria metabolize primary bile acids to secondary bile acids. Dietary fiber and bacteria flora determine the rates of metabolism for the secondary bile acids, lithocholic acid (LCA) and deoxycholic acid (DCA).
The LCA:DCA ratio may be an important discriminating marker in colorectal cancer susceptibility. An elevated secondary bile acid ratio is associated with an increased risk of breast and colorectal cancer. Elevated levels may also occur in patients with gall stones and after cholecystectomy.
References:
- Steroids and cancer: faecal bile acid screening for early detection of cancer risk. - [L]
- Rye Bread Improves Bowel Function and Decreases the Concentrations of Some Compounds That Are Putative Colon Cancer Risk Markers in Middle-Aged Women and Men [L]
- Fecal steroids and colorectal cancer. [L]
- A prospective study of serum bile acid concentrations and colorectal cancer risk in post-menopausal women on the island of Guernsey [L]
The ratio when high or low has been found useful to check risk for several conditions such as colorectal cancer and gall stones.
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
- The ratio when high or low has been found useful to check risk for several conditions such as colorectal cancer and gall stones.
- Increased risk for certain types of cancers. Elevated levels also occur in individuals with gall stones after gall bladder removal.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get StartedMonthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
Acetate, Akkermansia muciniphila, Beta defensin 2, Bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium longum, Butyrate, Butyrivibrio, Calprotectin, Chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), Cholic acid (CA), Deoxycholic acid (DCA), Enterobacteriaceae, Eubacterium, Eubacterium rectale, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Fecal Anti Gliadin, Fecal Eosinophil Protein X, Fecal lactoferrin, Fecal Occult Blood, Fecal pH, Fecal Zonulin, Lactobacillus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, LCA/DCA ratio, Lithocholic acid (LCA), Long chain fatty acids, Lysozyme, Meat Fiber, MMP 9, Pancreatic elastase 1, Propionate, Propionibacterium, Roseburia, S100A12, sIgA, Streptococcus species, Streptococcus thermophilus, Total Cholesterol, Total Cholesterol subfraction, Total Fecal Fat, Total Fecal Triglycerides, Total Phospholipid subfraction, Total Short chain fatty acids, Valerate, Vegetable fiber, ß-glucuronidase