The feasibility of detecting endometrial and ovarian cancer using DNA methylation biomarkers in cervical scrapings

• Published in: Journal of gynecologic oncology 2018, 29(1), , pp.1-13
• Main Authors: Chang, Cheng Chang, Wang, Hui Chen, Liao, Yu Ping, Chen, Yu Chih, Weng, Yu Chun, Yu, Mu Hsien, Lai, Hung Cheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original; 산부인과학
• ISSN: 2005-0380; 2005-0399
• DOI: 10.3802/jgo.2018.29.e17

We hypothesized that DNA methylation of development-related genes may occur in endometrial cancer (EC)/ovarian cancer (OC) and may be detected in cervical scrapings. We tested methylation status by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction for 14 genes in DNA pools of endometrial and OC tissues. Tissues of EC/normal endometrium, OC/normal ovary, were verified in training set using cervical scrapings of 10 EC/10 OC patients and 10 controls, and further validated in the testing set using independent cervical scrapings in 30 EC/30 OC patients and 30 controls. We generated cutoff values of methylation index (M-index) from cervical scrapings to distinguish between cancer patients and control. Sensitivity/specificity of DNA methylation biomarkers in detecting EC and OC was calculated. Of 14 genes, 4 (PTGDR, HS3ST2, POU4F3, MAGI2) showed hypermethylation in EC and OC tissues, and were verified in training set. POU4F3 and MAGI2 exhibited hypermethylation in training set were validated in independent cases. The mean M-index of POU4F3 is 78.28 in EC and 20.36 in OC, which are higher than that in controls (6.59; p