I want diagnose colorectal cancer by taking a swap of the suspected colon polyp, ulcer etc extract the RNA, reverse transcribe to cDNA and Real time PCR to determine whether the Oncogene VAV3 is overexpressed (highly linked to colorectal cancer).
I assume these are polyps that have been removed at colonoscopy or other surgery. This approach has been used for other markers. The standard for diagnosis is still histology read by a pathologist. I do not see your approach helping regarding diagnosis. It may be that VAV3 has a potential as a prognostic indicator.
Most small adenocarcinomas arising on colon polyps may not be reached with a swab - meaning they might not be superficial. The surface may be covered by cells of adenoma and there may be adenocarcinoma lying underneath, invading the polyp stalk (pathologist here). In addition, ulcerated lesions may not always yield high quality rna/dna etc that you may need - inflammatory exudate, necrosis can cause loss of quality and quantity. The gold standard is still biopsying.
Your possible swab assay can be a supportive diagnostic tool if the above-mentioned issues are addressed, but would it help decrease the need for colonoscopy?
If you need to remove the lesion for analysis, you already healed it.
It gest interesting to analyze the fluid of colonic lavage, stool or blood for any RNA related to CRC as so called liquid biopsy.
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