Detection and differential diagnosis of colon cancerby a cumulative analysis of promoter methylation

摘要

Alterations in the methylation of promoters of cancer-related genes are promising biomarkersfor the early detection of disease. Compared with single methylation alteration, assessingcombined methylation alterations can provide higher association with specific cancer. Herewe use cationic conjugated polymer-based fluorescence resonance energy transfer toquantitatively analyse DNA methylation levels of seven colon cancer-related genes in aChinese population. Through a stepwise discriminant analysis and cumulative detection ofmethylation alterations, we acquire high accuracy and sensitivity for colon cancer detection(86.3 and 86.7%) and for differential diagnosis (97.5 and 94%). Moreover, we identify acorrelation between the CpG island methylator phenotype and clinically important parameters in patients with colon cancer. The cumulative analysis of promoter methylationalterations by the cationic conjugated polymer-based fluorescence resonance energy transfermay be useful for the screening and differential diagnosis of patients with colon cancer, andfor performing clinical correlation analyses.