Home Neoplasma 2020 Neoplasma Vol.67, No.4, p.909–915, 2020

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Neoplasma Vol.67, No.4, p.909–915, 2020

Title: Hypomethylation of CTCFL promoters as a noninvasive biomarker in plasma from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Author: M. M. Chen, R. C. Zhao, K. F. Chen, Y. Huang, Z. J. Liu, Y. G. Wei, Y. Jian, A. M. Sun, L. Qin, B. Li, Y. Qin

Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third deadliest cancer in the world with high morbidity and poor prognosis. CTCFL (CCCTC-binding factor like) is a member of the cancer testis antigen (CTA) family with oncogenic properties. To demonstrate whether the hypomethylation of CTCFL promoters in plasma could be used as a noninvasive biomarker to predict poor prognosis of HCC, we extracted cell-free DNA from the plasma and detected the methylation status of CTCFL in 43 HCC, 5 liver cirrhosis and 6 benign lesion samples using methylation specific PCR (MSP). Our study indicated that the hypomethylation of CTCFL promoters in HCC plasma samples (60.4%) was significantly different from that in benign lesion plasma samples (16.7%) with a p-value of 0.043. Analysis of clinicopathological data showed that the methylation status of CTCFL promoters was significantly correlated with microvascular involvement (MVI) (p=0.001) and postoperative recurrence (p=0.031). Furthermore, clinical prognosis data of 347 HCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database displayed that the hypomethylated group had worse overall survival than the hypermethylated group (p=0.0056). In conclusion, we provide evidence that the hypomethylation of CTCFL promoters in cell-free DNA is a biomarker for monitoring HCC patients, which can be used as a noninvasive prediction index for tumor recurrence and provide the individualized decision-making for clinicians.

Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, hypomethylation, liquid biopsy, biomarker, recurrence, prognosis
Published online: 07-May-2020
Year: 2020, Volume: 67, Issue: 4 Page From: 909, Page To: 915
doi:10.4149/neo_2020_190819N789


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