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Aberrant Promoter Methylation in Chinese Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Patterns in Primary Tumors and Potential Diagnostic Application in Bronchoalevolar Lavage¹

University Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital [E. C. C., K. W. T., B. L., J. C. M. H., W. K. L., Y. L. K.]; Department of Pathology, Kowloon Hospital [S. Y. L.]; and Department of Pathology, Tseung Kwan O Hospital [K. H. F.], Hong Kong

This study was aimed at defining patterns of aberrant gene methylation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Chinese patients and its use in detecting cancer cells in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL).

The methylation-specific PCR (MSP) was used to study methylation of the p16, retinoic acid receptor-ß (RARß), death-associated protein (DAP) kinase, and O⁶-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) genes in 75 NSCLCs [44 adenocarcinomas and 31 squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs)] and 68 BALs from suspected lung cancers.

More females had adenocarcinoma than SCC (11 of 44 versus 2 of 31, P = 0.04). Aberrant methylation in at least one gene was found in 63 of 75 (84%) NSCLCs. p16, RARß, DAP kinase, and MGMT methylation was similar in adenocarcinoma and SCC. However, females with NSCLC showed more frequent p16 methylation than males (12 of 13 versus 36 of 62, P = 0.02), because of more frequent p16 methylation in female adenocarcinomas (10 of 11 versus 17 of 33, P = 0.02). This sexual difference was not observed in RARß, DAP kinase, and MGMT. At 92%, the frequency of p16 methylation in Chinese female NSCLC is one of the highest known. For BAL, MSP and cytological analysis showed concordant and discordant results in 25 of 68 and 43 of 68 samples. Of 41 MSP+/cytology- cases, 35 were eventually shown to have malignant lung lesions, 4 were at high risk but had no evidence of lung cancer, and 2 were lost to follow-up. There were two MSP-/cytology+ cases.

Frequent gene methylations were seen in Chinese NSCLC patients. More frequent p16 methylation was seen in female patients. MSP is a useful molecular adjunct for cancer cell detection in BAL samples.

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