Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117597, Singapore.
Biomark Res. 2014 Mar 17;2(1):5. doi: 10.1186/2050-7771-2-5.
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers in the world and it is often associated with poor prognosis. Liver transplantation and resection are two currently available curative therapies. However, most patients cannot be treated with such therapies due to late diagnosis. This underscores the urgent need to identify potential markers that ensure early diagnosis of HCC. As more evidences are suggesting that epigenetic changes contribute hepatocarcinogenesis, DNA methylation was poised as one promising biomarker. Indeed, genome wide profiling reveals that aberrant methylation is frequent event in HCC. Many studies showed that differentially methylated genes and CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) status in HCC were associated with clinicopathological data. Some commonly studied hypermethylated genes include p16, SOCS1, GSTP1 and CDH1. In addition, studies have also revealed that methylation markers could be detected in patient blood samples and associated with poor prognosis of the disease. Undeniably, increasing number of methylation markers are being discovered through high throughput genome wide data in recent years. Proper and systematic validation of these candidate markers in prospective cohort is required so that their actual prognostication and surveillance value could be accurately determined. It is hope that in near future, methylation marker could be translate into clinical use, where patients at risk could be diagnosed early and that the progression of disease could be more correctly assessed.
肝细胞癌（HCC）是世界上最常见的癌症之一，通常预后不良。肝移植和切除术是目前两种可行的治愈性治疗方法。然而，由于诊断较晚，大多数患者无法接受这些治疗。这突显了迫切需要确定潜在标志物以确保 HCC 的早期诊断。由于越来越多的证据表明表观遗传变化有助于肝癌的发生，因此 DNA 甲基化被认为是一种很有前途的生物标志物。事实上，全基因组分析表明，异常甲基化是 HCC 中的常见事件。许多研究表明，HCC 中差异甲基化基因和 CpG 岛甲基化表型（CIMP）状态与临床病理数据相关。一些常见研究的高甲基化基因包括 p16、SOCS1、GSTP1 和 CDH1。此外，研究还表明，甲基化标志物可在患者的血液样本中检测到，并与疾病的不良预后相关。不可否认，近年来通过高通量全基因组数据发现了越来越多的甲基化标志物。需要对这些候选标志物进行适当和系统的前瞻性队列验证，以便准确确定其实际预后和监测价值。希望在不久的将来，甲基化标志物能够转化为临床应用，使处于危险中的患者能够早期诊断，并且能够更准确地评估疾病的进展。
