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Updated: Jan 16, 2026
Comprehensive DNA Methylation Analysis Using a Methyl-CpG-binding Domain Capture-based Method in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients
Published on: June 16, 2017
Association of leukocyte composition ratios from blood methylation with cancer mortality outcomes
Ziwen Fan1, Dominic Edelmann2, Zitong Zhao1
1Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Background:
Leukocyte composition ratios derived from blood genome-wide methylation (DNAm-derived LCRs), reflecting systemic inflammation, remain unclear in relation to various mortality outcomes.
Methods:
We performed an epigenome-wide analysis to identify the association of DNAm-derived LCRs with all-cause mortality, cancer-specific mortality, and lung-cancer-specific mortality in a large prospective cohort study with 17 years follow-up.
Results:
Strong associations of multiple LCRs are seen for all mortality outcomes. The neutrophil-to-B-cell ratio was strongly associated with all-cause mortality (HR per SD increase, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.10-1.31), the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio with cancer-specific mortality (HR, 1.28; 1.11-1.49), and the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio with lung-cancer-specific mortality (HR, 0.53; 0.38-0.75). The consistency of HR estimations across 11-year, 14-year, and 17-year follow-ups reinforces these findings. Several LCRs show stronger associations in females and younger participants.
Conclusions:
Our study identifies DNAm-derived LCRs as particularly useful measures for quantifying cancer mortality risk over long-term follow-ups exceeding a decade.
