Aberrant promoter methylation of tumor relevant genes frequently occurs in early steps of carcinogenesis and during tumor progression. Epigenetic alterations could be used as potential biomarkers for early detection and for prediction of prognosis and therapy response in lung cancer. The present study quantitatively analyzed the methylation status of known and potential gatekeeper and tumor sup...

Gene promoter methylation has been reported in gastric cancer (GC). However, the potential applications of blood-based gene promoter methylation as a noninvasive biomarker for GC detection remain to be evaluated. Hence, we performed this analysis to determine whether promoter methylation of 11 tumor-related genes could become a promising biomarker in blood samples in GC. We found that the cycli...

PURPOSE AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Recent evidence shows that the presence of promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes has been demonstrated in the serum DNA of patients with various cancers such as lung, liver, and head and neck cancer. We have examined promoter hypermethylation of the p16 gene in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) using methylation-specific PCR to detect tumor D...

PURPOSE Quantitative methylation-specific tests suggest that not all cells in a glioblastoma with detectable promoter methylation of the O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene carry a methylated MGMT allele. This observation may indicate cell subpopulations with distinct MGMT status, raising the question of the clinically relevant cutoff of MGMT methylation therapy. Epigenetic silen...

hTERT, which encodes the catalytic subunit of telomerase and is expressed in most immortalized and cancer cells, has been reported to have increased DNA methylation in its promoter region in many cancers. This pattern is inconsistent with observations that DNA methylation of promoter CpG islands is typically associated with gene silencing. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of promoter D...

The role of MGMT promoter methylation in lung cancer (LC) remains controversial. To clarify the association of MGMT promoter methylation with survival in LC, we performed a meta-analysis of the literature with meta-analysis. Trials were selected for further analysis if they provided an independent assessment of MGMT promoter methylation in LC and reported the survival data in the context of MGM...

As a tumor suppressor gene, 14-3-3 σ has been reported to be frequently methylated in breast cancer. However, the clinical effect of 14-3-3 σ promoter methylation remains to be verified. This study was performed to assess the clinicopathological significance and diagnostic value of 14-3-3 σ promoter methylation in breast cancer. 14-3-3 σ promoter methylation was found to be notably higher in br...

The RASSF1A promoter is frequently methylated in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC). We examined RASSF1A promoter methylation in primary tumors, adjacent morphologically tumor cell-free tissues and corresponding circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) samples of patients with HGSC, using a real-time methylation specific PCR (real-time MSP) and a methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting analysis...

PURPOSE Sporadic colorectal cancers with high-frequency microsatellite instability (MSI-H) are related to hypermethylation of mismatch repair (MMR) genes and a higher frequency of BRAF mutations than Lynch syndrome. We estimated the feasibility of hereditary colorectal cancer based on hMLH1 methylation and BRAF mutations. METHODS Between May 2005 and June 2011, we enrolled all 33 analyzed pat...

Background: Deregulation of DKK3 has been reported in various cancers, and its abnormal methylation is closely associated with carcinogenesis. However, the methylation status and function of DKK3 in osteosarcoma have been poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of methylated oligonucleotide-induced methylation of DKK3 promoter on malignant properties of osteosarcoma cells. Method...