title: Concomitant hypermethylation of multiple genes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
abstract: Primary lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Promoter hypermethylation is a major inactivation mechanism of tumor-related genes, and increasingly appears to play an important role in carcinogenesis. In the present study, we used quantitative methylation-specific PCR (Q-MSP) assays to analyze promoter hypermethylation of nine genes in a large cohort of well-characterized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and explore their associations with the clinicopathological features of tumor. We found that there were significant differences in methylation levels for six of nine gene promoters between cancerous and noncancerous lung tissues. More importantly, with 100% diagnostic specificity, high sensitivity, ranging from 44.9% to 84.1%, was found for each of the nine genes. Interestingly, promoter hypermethylation of most genes was closely associated with histologic type, which was more frequent in squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) than in adenocarcinomas (ADC). In addition, highly frequent concomitant methylation of multiple genes was found in NSCLC, particularly in SCC. Our data showed that multiple genes were aberrantly methylated in lung tumorigenesis, and that they were closely associated with certain clinicopathological features of NSCLC, particularly of the histologic type, suggesting that these hypermethylated genes could be potential biomarkers in early detection of NSCLC in high-risk individuals, as well as in evaluating the prognosis of NSCLC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Xi'an 710061, the People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Meiju
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Haixia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Bingyin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hou
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005260:Female; D052138:Genes, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011379:Prognosis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor