Board Ruth E, Knight Lucy, Greystoke Alastair, Blackhall Fiona H, Hughes Andrew, Dive Caroline, Ranson Malcolm
Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Paterson Institute of Cancer Research, Wilmslow Road, Manchester M20 4BX.
Biomark Insights. 2008 Jan 25;2:307-19.
Free circulating DNA, which is thought to be derived from the primary tumour, can be detected in the blood of patients with cancer. Detection of genetic and epigenetic alteration in this tumour DNA offers a potential source of development of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for cancer. One such change is DNA methylation of the promotor region of tumour suppressor genes. This causes down regulation of tumour suppressor gene expression, a frequent event in carcinogenesis. Hypermethylation of the promotor region of a number of genes has been detected in many tumour types and more recently these changes have been detected in circulating tumour DNA. This review will summarise the literature detailing DNA methylation in circulating tumour DNA and discuss some of the current controversies and technical challenges facing its use as a potential biomarker for cancer.
游离循环DNA被认为源自原发性肿瘤,在癌症患者的血液中能够被检测到。检测这种肿瘤DNA中的基因和表观遗传改变为癌症预后和预测生物标志物的开发提供了一个潜在来源。其中一种变化是肿瘤抑制基因启动子区域的DNA甲基化。这会导致肿瘤抑制基因表达下调,这在致癌过程中是常见现象。在许多肿瘤类型中都检测到了多个基因启动子区域的高甲基化,最近在循环肿瘤DNA中也检测到了这些变化。这篇综述将总结详细阐述循环肿瘤DNA中DNA甲基化的文献,并讨论将其用作癌症潜在生物标志物目前面临的一些争议和技术挑战。