Aberrant DNA methylation profiles of non-small cell lung cancers in a Korean population

We performed this study to investigate the aberrant methylation profile of the cancer-related genes in Korean non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that previously exhibited high frequencies of methylation in Western populations. The aberrant promoter methylation of eight genes (GSTP1, p16, FHIT, APC, RASSF1A, hMLH1, hMSH2, AGT) was determined by MSP in 99 surgically resected NSCLCs and their corresponding nonmalignant lung tissues. Methylation in the tumor samples was detected at 15% for GSTP1, 22% for p16, 34% for FHIT1, 48% for APC, 40% for RASSF1A, 18% for hMLH1, 8% for hMSH2 and 21% for AGT, whereas it occurred at lower frequencies in the corresponding nonmalignant lung tissues, particularly in the p16 (1%) and RASSF1A (1%) genes. These results suggest that the methylation profiles of NSCLCs in a Korean population are similar to those in Western populations.