Association of RASSF1A Promoter Methylation

Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer worldwide still. There were more than 1.8 million new cases (13% of total cancer incidence) and almost 1.6 million deaths (20% of total cancer mortality), as estimated in 2012 (WIL, D2014). Moreover, Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men in 87 countries and in women in 26 countries. Despite the advent of new diagnostic techniques, most lung cancers are detected at a late stage, and the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer is less than 15% in the US (Jemal et al., 2011). Once tumor cells have spread, the long-term prognosis is poor since no curative treatments are available. Thus, the development of biomarkers for effective early diagnosis of lung cancer is clearly necessary and he molecular biomarker is a new diagnostic technique for tumors (Hirsch et al., 2002). The Ras association domain family 1 A (RASSF1A) gene, located on chromosome 3 at band p21.3 (3p21.3) which is common heterozygous and homozygous deletions in different types of human tumors (Agathanggelou et al., 2003). It may serve as the effector that mediates the apoptotic effects of Ras by binding Ras in a guanosine triphosphate dependent manner (Hesson et al., 2007). What is more, RASSF1A is a frequent aberrant methylation