title: Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) promoter methylation status in tumor and serum DNA in Egyptian breast cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Status of DNA methylation is one of the most common molecular alterations in human neoplasia. Because it is possible to detect these epigenetic alterations in the bloodstream of patients, we investigated the aberrant DNA methylation status of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in patient pretherapeutic sera and tissue.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this case control study the patient series consisted of 120 sporadic primary breast cancer cases and 100 patients with benign breast lesion. ER3, ER4, and ER5 primers were used for methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) to analyze the CpG methylation of promoter region of ERα gene. Correlation between ER3, ER4, and ER5 methylation and clinicopathological characteristics of the patients was investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The methylation status of ER3, ER4 and ER5 was 65%, 26.7% and 61.7% in tissue respectively and 57.5%, 21.7% and 55.8% in serum respectively. The concordance between tumor and serum DNA methylation was 80%, 72% and 92% for ER3, ER4 and ER5 respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated the potential utility of serum DNA methylation of ERα gene promoter as a non-invasive diagnostic and/or prognostic marker in patients with breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hoda A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Hagrass
authors.affiliation: Medical Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt. Electronic address: hebapasha@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Heba F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Pasha
authors.affiliation: Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ahmed M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D004534:Egypt; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C506487:ESR1 protein, human; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D004247:DNA
keywords: Breast cancer; Egypt; Estrogen receptor; Methylated polymerase chain reaction