This study investigated DNA methylation status in the blood and urine of patients with prostate cancer (CaP) and BPH, attempting to identify a panel reflecting a cancer signature. They obtained plasma DNA samples from 236 patients with CaP and 282 patients with BPH. All BPH patients had PSA levels prompting prostate biopsy, but none had CaP identified. The methylation status of the following 5 tumor suppressor genes was analyzed; GSTP1, RASSF1A, RARβ2, APC and E-cadherin. They did this using a quantitative fluorogenic real-time PCR assay, followed by methylation genotyping oligonucleotide microarray analysis. Hypermethylation present in 2 or more tumor suppressor genes was then considered an abnormal result.
Among CaP patients, hypermethylation was abnormal for RASSF1A in 81.3%, GSTP1 in 75%, and RARβ2 in 68.8%. In total, 232 of 236 CaP patients (98.3%) demonstrated hypermethylation in more than 2 genes. In contrast only 20 of the 282 BPH patients (7%) had hypermethylation of 2 or more genes. They concluded that this has potential implications for diagnosis, prognostic stratification and followup of CaP patients.
Presented by Raluca Dumache, MD, PhD, et al. at the 26th Annual European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress - March 18 - 21, 2011 - Austria Centre Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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