[Hypermethylation of p16 gene in clinical specimens of patients with lung cancer].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate aberrant methylation of the p16 promoter as a useful biomarker of lung cancer.


METHODS
A modified methylation-specific semi-nested PCR was performed to detect p16 hypermethylation in the matched samples of tumor tissue, blood plasma and sputum derived from 51 cases of lung cancer patients.


RESULTS
Hypermethylation of p16 promoter was demonstrated in 84.3% of the tumor tissues, 70.6% of the blood plasma and 76.5% of the sputum specimens, respectively. Only the patients whose tumor tissues had p16 hypermethylation exhibited aberrant methylation in their plasma and/or sputum specimens. Combining with cytological examination, 92.2% of the patients with lung cancer could be detected by p16 hypermethylation assay in both sputum and plasma samples.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that p16 hypermethylation in plasma and sputum identified by semi-nested PCR is a biomarker of lung cancer which can be useful as an auxillary diagnostic parameter.
Liu
Jin-yi
JY
Cancer Institute (Hospital), Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100021, China.
An
Qian
Q
Xu
Guan-dong
GD
Lei
Wen-dong
WD
Li
Ling
L
Pan
Qin-jing
QJ
Han
Nai-jun
NJ
Cheng
Shu-jun
SJ
Gao
Yan-ning
YN
D019175:DNA Methylation; D019942:Genes, p16; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction