SHOX2 methylation in Vietnamese patients with lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation on cytosine in the CpG dinucleotides is one of the most common epigenetic perturbations taking place during cancer initiation, progression, occurrence and resistance therapy. DNA methylation seems to be sufficiently stable epigenetic modification to be utilized as a cancer biomarker in in vitro diagnostic (IVD) settings. Nowadays, the SHOX2 methylation (mSHOX2) is one of the most valuable DNA methylation biomarkers of lung cancer that is the leading cause of cancer death. It is being continuously validated across ethnicities, lifestyles and lifespan. This study focused on characteristics of mSHOX2 in Vietnamese patients with lung cancer since a lack of investigation and evidence of its utility in this country. METHODS: The probe and primer sets were designed according to the MethyLight method for quantitative assessment of the mSHOX2 in 214 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) lung tissues and 57 plasma samples. RESULTS: mSHOX2 in FFPE tissues allowed discriminating benign and malignant lung diseases with 60% (95% CI 50.7-68.8%) sensitivity and 90.4% (95% CI 82.6-95.5%) specificity. Importantly, based on mSHOX2 in plasma, lung cancer could be detected with 83.3% (95% CI 65.3-94.4%) sensitivity and 92.6% (95% CI 75.7-99.1%) specificity, respectively. There were insignificant associations between mSHOX2 with age, cancer stage, EGFR mutation and serum CEA, CYFRA21-1 concentrations except for that gender. CONCLUSION: Our study indicated that mSHOX2 was satisfactory for distinguishing malignant from benign lung tissue and noninvasively detecting lung cancer.

Promoter methylation profile of GSTP1 and RASSF1A in prostate cancerand benign hyperplasia in Vietnamese men.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The GSTP1 and RASSF1A methylations that were considered as prostate cancer-specific molecular biomarkers have been extensively reported in Western/American patients with prostate cancer but are rarely reported in Southeast Asian patients. In the present study, the methylation status of the GSTP1 and RASSF1A promoters was evaluated in prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) tissues from Vietnamese men. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The accuracy of methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) was validated to analyze the methylation pattern of GSTP1 and RASSF1A in 59 PCa and 37 BPH patients, respectively. The methylation status was confirmed by the sequencing of cloned MSP products. The association between methylation status and the clinical and pathological parameters of tumors was statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The methylation of GSTP1 and RASSF1A was detected in 39/59 and 19/59 PCa patients and in 4/37 and 10/37 BPH patients, respectively. The methylation frequency of GSTP1 was significantly associated with PCa (P < 0.01). The RASSF1A methylation frequency (32.2%) observed in the study was lower relative to that detected in other populations. CONCLUSIONS: GSTP1 and RASSF1A methylation was accurately detected using the validated MSP method and can be used as a biomarker to diagnose prostate cancer.