Tumor survival is significantly correlated with the immune response of patients. IFNG plays an important role in the tumor host response and decreased IFNG expression is often observed in lung cancer. Studies have shown that CpG island hypermethylation plays a critical role in transcriptional silencing of IFNG gene expression. However, there is limited understanding regarding the molecular mech...

Epigenetic modifications are important early events during carcinogenesis. In particular, hypermethylation of CpG islands in the promoter region of tumor suppressor genes is a well-known mechanism of gene silencing that contributes to cancer development and progression. Tissue factor pathway inhibitor 2 (TFPI-2) is a tumor suppressor involved in invasiveness inhibition. Although TFPI-2 transcri...

Deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) is a candidate tumor-suppressor gene located at chromosome 18q21. However, DCC gene was found to have few somatic mutations and the heterozygous mice (DCC(+/-)) showed a similar frequency of tumor formation compared with the wild-type mice (DCC(+/+)). Recently, DCC came back to the spotlight as a better understating of its function and relationship with its li...

There has been no clear evidence demonstrating whether DNA hypermethylation can affect the prognosis of esophageal cancer. We collected tissue from 50 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus and tested them for DNA hypermethylation using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. CpG island hypermethylations were observed in 10% for p16, 34% for RARbetaP2, 46% for adenomatosis po...

BACKGROUND Salivary rinses have been recently proposed as a valuable resource for the development of epigenetic biomarkers for detection and monitoring of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Both salivary rinses collected with and without an exfoliating brush from patients with HNSCC are used in detection of promoter hypermethylation, yet their correlation of promoter hypermethylatio...

BACKGROUND The promoter of somatostatin (SST), a primary inhibitor of gastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion, is hypermethylated in 80% of human colon cancers. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether and at what stage promoter hypermethylation of SST is involved in human esophageal carcinogenesis. METHODS SST promoter hypermethylation was examined by real-time methylation-s...

Purpose: The p16 tumor suppressor gene is inactivated in many solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs), through promoter hypermethylation. Presence of p16 hypermethylation in precursor lesions of NSCLC and in body fluids of individuals at risk makes it a potential candidate for early disease detection. However, the current low sensitivity of p16 hypermethylation detection in...

The INK4a/ARF locus encodes two distinct tumor suppressors, p16INK4a and p14ARF. Although the contribution of p16INK4a to human tumorigenesis through point mutation, deletion, and hypermethylation has been widely documented, little is known about specific p14ARF lesions and their consequences. Recent data indicate that p14ARF suffers inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in colorectal cance...

PURPOSE Most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Hypermethylation of CpG islands in promoter regions is now recognized as an important early event in carcinogenesis and detection of methylated DNA has been suggested as a potential biomarker for early detection of cancer. There are no studies on epigenetic changes in samples from HCC patients before diagnosis. We ...

The INK4a/ARF locus encodes two distinct tumor suppressors, p16 and p14. Although the contribution of p16 to human tumorigenesis through point mutation, deletion, and hypermethylation has been widely documented, little is known about specific p14 lesions and their consequences. Recent data indicate that p14 suffers inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in colorectal cancer cells. Because it...