Lymph node metastasis is infrequent in patients with highly-methylated colorectal cancer

In this study, the combined methylation status of p16, p14, HLTF, CDH13 and RUNX3 was examined in 59 resected primary colorectal cancers using methylation-specific PCR and the methylation status was correlated with the clinicopathological features of the affected patients. A significant difference was found in lymph node metastasis (p = 0.0359) on comparing the methylation status in colorectal cancers with lymph node metastasis to those without. There was also a significant gender difference (p = 0.0248) when the methylation status was compared. Colorectal cancer without lymph node metastasis frequently exhibited aberrant methylation of the p16, p14, HLTF, CDH13 and RUNX3 genes.