Dysregulation and prognostic potential of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) levels in prostate cancer

摘要

BackgroundPrognostic tools for prostate cancer (PC) are inadequate and new molecular biomarkers may improve risk stratification. The epigenetic mark 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) has recently been proposed as a novel candidate prognostic biomarker in several malignancies including PC. 5hmC is an oxidized derivative of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and can be further oxidized to 5-formylcytosine (5fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC). The present study is the first to investigate the biomarker potential in PC for all four DNA methylation marks in parallel. Thus, we determined 5mC, 5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC levels in non-malignant (NM) and PC tissue samples from a large radical prostatectomy (RP) patient cohort (n = 546) by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis of serial sections of a tissue microarray. Possible associations between methylation marks, routine clinicopathological parameters, ERG status, and biochemical recurrence (BCR) after RP were investigated.