Evaluation of FTH1 and SHOX2 promoter methylation in tumor tissue and free margin in patients with lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is considered the most lethal malignancy worldwide due to its poor prognosis. DNA methylation change has been identified as the valuable target for cancer, diagnosis and prognosis. Subsequently, in the current study, FTH-1 and SHXO2 DNA methylation were investigated in non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) as the novel epigenetic biomarkers. Methods: To initially evaluate the diagnostic value of FTH-1 and SHXO2 DNA methylation, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data on methylation profile of NSCLC was analyzed. To further validate bioinformatic results, 100 tissue samples, including 50 NSCLC samples and 50 adjacent normal samples were prepared. The genomic DNA was extracted and bisulfite modification was performed. Then, the methylation status of, FTH-1 and SHXO2 was evaluated using q-MSP method. Results: The obtained results from TCGA and q-MSP showed significant FTH-1 hypomethylation and SHXO2 hypermethylation in NSCLC tissues in comparison with margin specimens. Also, FTH-1 and SHXO2 methylation levels were significantly associated with the clinical stage of malignancy. Furthermore, ROC curve analysis estimated AUC values equal to 0.751 and of 0.8676 for FTH-1 and SHXO2, respectively, illustrating their significant as the diagnostic biomarkers for NSCLC.