PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Anastasia Ponomaryova AU - Elena Rykova AU - Nadezda Cherdyntseva AU - Tatiana Skvortsova AU - Alexey Dobrodeev AU - Alexander Zav'yalov AU - Sergey Tuzikov AU - Valentin Vlassov AU - Pavel Laktionov TI - RARĪ²2 methylation level in blood for lung cancer assessment DP - 2011 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - p1951 VI - 38 IP - Suppl 55 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1951.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p1951.full SO - Eur Respir J2011 Sep 01; 38 AB - Background: Cell-free DNA bearing the same epigenetic changes as the tumor tissues were shown to be detectable in plasma circulating DNA (cirDNA) of cancer patients indicating their usefulness as complementary diagnostic and prognostic markers for lung cancer.Methods: Blood samples of 30 healthy men and 55 patients with confirmed non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) before and after surgery were enrolled in this study. Methylation level of RARb2 gene in the cirDNA from blood plasma and cirDNA eluated from blood cell surface with PBS/EDTA and trypsin solutions was assessed by quantitative methylation-specific PCR.Results: It was found that RARb2 gene methylation level was significantly increased in plasma cirDNA and cell-surface-bound cirDNA from NSCLC patients compared with healthy subjects (7620 copies/ml and 1083 copies/ml in the cell-surface-bound fractions, 3589 copies/ml and 1068 copies/ml in the blood plasma, Mann-Whitney U test, P<0.05). The increase of RARb2 methylation level was associated with stage and unfavorable outcome of the disease. 93% of NSCLC patients demonstrated the significant decrease of RARb2 methylation level in cirDNA at the time point of 10-15 days after surgery.Conclusions: Epigenetic alterations of RARb2 gene in the total cirDNA were found to be associated with lung cancer progression. Correlation of RARb2 methylation level with tumor stage, outcome of disease and surgical treatment efficacy demonstrate applicability of cirDNA methylation marker analysis as a valuable tool for lung cancer prognosis and treatment monitoring improvement.