| Summary: | This study was designed to investigate the DNA-methylation status of <em>E</em>-cadherin (<em>CDH1</em>) and <em>H</em>-cadherin (<em>CDH13</em>) in serum samples of cervical cancer patients and control patients with no malignant diseases and to evaluate the clinical utility of these markers. DNA-methylation status of <em>CDH1</em> and <em>CDH13</em> was analyzed by means of MethyLight-technology in serum samples from 49 cervical cancer patients and 40 patients with diseases other than cancer. To compare this methylation analysis with another technique, we analyzed the samples with a denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) PCR-method. The specificity and sensitivity of <em>CDH1</em> DNA-methylation measured by MethyLight was 75% and 55%, and for <em>CDH13</em> DNA-methylation 95% and 10%. We identified a specificity of 92.5% and a sensitivity of only 27% for the <em>CDH1</em> DHPLC-PCR analysis. Multivariate analysis showed that serum <em>CDH1</em> methylation-positive patients had a 7.8-fold risk for death (95% CI: 2.2–27.7; <em>p</em> = 0.001) and a 92.8-fold risk for relapse (95% CI: 3.9–2207.1; <em>p</em> = 0.005). We concluded that the serological detection of <em>CDH1</em> and <em>CDH13</em> DNA-hypermethylation is not an ideal diagnostic tool due to low diagnostic specificity and sensitivity. However, it was validated that <em>CDH1</em> methylation analysis in serum samples may be of potential use as a prognostic marker for cervical cancer patients.
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