[Aberrant methylation of circulating DNA for prediction of chemo-sensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer].

In advanced lung cancer, there are few opportunities to obtain a histopathological specimen, so it is quite difficult to predict chemo-sensitivity in and individual case. The reason is that surgical resection of the primary region of an advanced lung cancer is not common, and an endoscopically obtained sample is occasionally insufficient for accurate pathological classification. Circulating DNA is a potential solution in this situation. Circulating DNA derived from advanced cancer has been utilized for various studies, and a recent report indicated that DNA methylation of circulating DNA is useful for prediction of the chemosensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer. In this review, the author discusses the recent situation of cancer chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer, presents an outline of epigenetics, epigenetic change in lung cancer and a preliminary study of circulating DNA methylation.