title: [Aberrant methylation of APC and Bikunin CpG islands in sporadic breast carcinomas].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate relationship between methylation status of the APC and Bikunin CpG islands and clinicopathological characteristics of breast carcinomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  The methylation status of APC and Bikunin CpG islands in 152 sporadic breast carcinoma samples were analyzed by methylation specific PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  40.8% of breast carcinomas examined showed methylated signals for the APC. The methylation frequency of APC was significantly correlated to the tumor size (chi(2) = 4.041; P = 0.044), but not to patients' age, pathologic type of tumor, clinical stage, histological grade, lymph node metastasis and the status of estrogen or progestogen receptor. In addition, 24.6% of carcinoma samples examined revealed strong methylated signals for Bikunin. No significant correlation was found between the aberrant methylation of Bikunin and the clinicopathological characteristics of sporadic breast carcinomas.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The aberrant methylations of APC and Bikunin are frequent events during breast carcinogenesis. APC methylation might play a role in the progression of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Peking University School of Oncology and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research, Beijing 100036, China.
authors.forename: Yang-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yun-Tao
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Xian-Zi
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Da-Jun
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D018899:CpG Islands; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm