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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation in Gastrointestinal Cancer
Published on: September 18, 2020
Methylation profile of circulating plasma DNA in patients with pancreatic cancer
Anatoliy A Melnikov1, Denise Scholtens, Mark S Talamonti
1Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Background And Objectives:
Detection of pancreatic cancer by blood-based test may improve outcomes. We sought to establish the feasibility of a blood-based detection of pancreatic cancer through multiplexed array-mediated analysis of DNA methylation.
Methods:
Methylation was assessed in each plasma sample using a panel of 56 frequently methylated genes. Methylation profiles in patients with ductal cell adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (n = 30) and healthy gender and age-matched controls (n = 30) were compared. Methylation was determined as described previously; a composite biomarker was developed for classification of cancer and normal samples. Sensitivity and specificity of the biomarker were estimated using 25 rounds of fivefold cross-validation.
Results:
Five promoters were consistently selected for the classifier during cross-validation and comprised the final composite biomarker Five-fold cross-validation results indicate 76% sensitivity and 59% specificity of the biomarker, which included promoters of CCND2, SOCS1, THBS1, PLAU, and VHL.
Conclusion:
Differential methylation profiling of plasma DNA can detect ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas with significant accuracy and should be explored further. While additional improvement of biomarkers is necessary, the blood-based biomarker may be already useful as a first-line detection tool.
