title: Frequent promoter methylation of M-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many cadherins (CDH) are associated with various types of cancer and their genetic and epigenetic alterations might be involved in carcinogenesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined the methylation status of CDH genes in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and corresponding noncancerous liver tissues derived from 47 patients, and evaluated the correlation with clinicopathological parameters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hypermethylation was detected at a ratio ranging from 0% to 55.3%. In particular, M-cadherin (CDH15) was the most hypermethylated of 7 CDH genes. Patients with methylated M-cadherin had shorter 5-year survival rates than patients with unmethylated M-cadherin (overall survival rates, 67.4% vs. 82.7%; p = 0.0167) when assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate analysis revealed that M-cadherin methylation status was an independent predictor of survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found that M-cadherin methylation status has prognostic significance for the poorer survival of patients with HCC. This is the first definitive report of a correlation between M-cadherin and the prognosis of patients with HCC.
authors: Department of Surgery II, Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine, University of Nagoya, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan. suguru@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors: Suguru
authors: S
authors: Yamada
authors: Shuji
authors: S
authors: Nomoto
authors: Tsutomu
authors: T
authors: Fujii
authors: Shin
authors: S
authors: Takeda
authors: Naohito
authors: N
authors: Kanazumi
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Sugimoto
authors: Akimasa
authors: A
authors: Nakao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015820:Cadherins / Q000235:genetics*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011379:Prognosis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C070896:M-cadherin