title: Aberrant p16 promoter methylation among Greek lung cancer patients and smokers: correlation with smoking.
abstract: Genetic and environmental factors (dietary and smoking) influence lung cancer epidemiology and induce epigenetic modifications that should be assessed in individual populations. We analyzed p16 methylation among Greek non-small cell lung carcinoma patients and smokers using two-stage methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. One hundred and fifty specimens from cancerous and adjacent non-cancerous tissue, bronchial washings and sputum from patients and 48 specimens, mostly sputum, from disease-free smokers were included. p16 methylation was very frequent in biopsies (82.85%) and bronchial washings (non-small cell lung carcinoma, 80.35%; small cell lung carcinoma, 16.66%) from patients, but also in adjacent non-cancerous tissue (45.71%). Concordance of p16 methylation and positivity by cytological examination was 51.78%. Methylation was also observed in sputum from asymptomatic cytology-negative smokers (22.5%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (three of eight). Among disease-free individuals, methylation correlated only with heavy smoking (>50 pack-years, P<0.001) and differed among male and female disease-free smokers. In summary, p16 methylation is very frequent among non-small cell lung carcinoma patients, and correlates with heavy cigarette consumption only in disease-free smokers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Chemistry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Elisavet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Georgiou
authors.forename: Rozalia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valeri
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tzimagiorgis
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Anzel
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krikelis
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tsilikas
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sarikos
authors.forename: Chara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Destouni
authors.forename: Afroditi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dimitriadou
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kouidou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001980:Bronchi / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D019942:Genes, p16; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013183:Sputum / Q000378:metabolism