Methylation analysis of APC, AXIN2, DACT1, RASSF1A and MGMT gene promoters in non-small cell lung cancer

Silencing of tumour-suppressor genes through promoter methylation is frequently observed in carcinogenesis. In this study, we determined the methylation status of RASSF1A, MGMT, APC, AXIN2 and DACT1 genes in 73 cases of non-small cell lung cancer. Methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting analysis (MS-HRM) was used to analyse the promoter methylation, which was further validated with Bisulfite pyrosequencing or Sanger sequencing. Promoter methylation of RASSF1A and APC was frequently found (56% and 49% of cases, respectively), while methylation of MGMT, AXIN2, DACT1 was observed in 30%, 19% and 16%, respectively. Concurrent gene methylation of at least two genes was observed in 55% of the examined cases, with a total of 89% of samples displaying methylation in one or more of the investigated genes. Further analysis of concurrent methylation revealed a positive correlation between AXIN2-DACT1 and an inverse correlation of APC-MGMT. Associations of methylated genes and clinicopathological features were emerged. In more detail, APC promoter methylation was correlated with smoking status (p= 0.020) and non-metastatic cases (p= 0.003). Moreover, MGMT methylation was preferentially found in TTF1-negative cases (p= 0.049). Interestingly, correlation occurred between AXIN2/DACT1 methylation and smoking status (p= 0.009) as well as tumour grade (p= 0.013), as none of these genes was methylated in the majority of smokers and one of the genes was methylated in high-grade tumours. We conclude that aberrant promoter methylation was observed in our cohort while concurrent methylation patterns were also determined. APC, MGMT and AXIN2/DACT1 methylation are potentially of clinical importance regarding prognosis and histological subtyping of NSCLC.