PURPOSE AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The etiologic association and prognostic significance of mismatch repair gene/protein alterations have never been examined in nonsmoking lung cancer. Therefore, we investigated protein expression and promoter hypermethylation of hMLH1 and hMSH2 genes in the tumor specimens from 105 nonsmoking female non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Immunohistochemistr...

BACKGROUND Hypermethylation of the suppressor of cytokine signaling 3(SOCS3) promoter has been reported to predict a poor prognosis in several cancers including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). We explored the function of SOCS3 promoter hypermethylation in GBM cohorts, including analysis of the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), when a large number of gene loci are simultaneously hypermethyl...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanism of altered retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta) expression during esophageal squamous carcinogenesis. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Samples were collected from Linzhou, China. The hypermethylation of CpG islands in the promoter region of the RARbeta gene was examined by methylation-specific PCR in human esophageal squamous cell carcino...

There is a clear association between germ-line BRCA1 mutations and inherited ovarian cancer; however, the association between BRCA1 mutations and sporadic ovarian cancer remains ambiguous. The frequency of BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation as an epigenetic means of BRCA1 inactivation was determined for a large, population-based cohort of ovarian cancer patients. BRCA1 promoter hypermethylation wa...

OBJECTIVES Prostate cancer (PCa) represents one of the most complicated human tumors and, like many others malignancies, arises from progressive genetic and epigenetic alterations. Among all recognized epigenetic alterations, aberrant DNA methylation (hypo- and hypermethylation) is the most important and the best characterized change in PCa. BACKGROUND We analyzed GSTP1, APC and RASSF1 gene p...

Background Approximately 20-25% of ovarian cancers are attributable to germline or somatic BRCA1/2 mutations, resulting in defects in the homologous recombination pathway. Inactivation of these genes can also be mediated by epigenetic changes, e.g., hypermethylation of CpG islands in the promoter regions. In such homologous recombination deficient tumors, platinum based chemotherapy is in gener...

Hypermethylation of CpG islands located in the promoter regions of genes is a major event in the development of the majority of cancer types, due to the subsequent aberrant silencing of important tumor suppressor genes. KLOTHO; a novel gene associated primarily with suppressing senescence has been shown to contribute to tumorigenesis as a result of its impaired function. Recently the relevance ...

PURPOSE Death-associated protein (DAP)-kinase gene is frequently inactivated by promoter hypermethylation in cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the promoter methylation status of the DAP-kinase gene in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The methylation status was evaluated by methylation-specific PCR (MSP). Thirty-two NPC biopsy specimens, plasma and buffy coat of ...