Clinicopathological significance of promoter methylation in gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.

The mitotic checkpoint gene () (Checkpoint with Forkhead-associated and Ring finger domains is a G2 phase/mitosis checkpoint and tumor-suppressor gene. Recent studies have reported the relationship of promoter methylation with clinicopathological significance of gastric cancer. However, the results remain unclear due to small size of sample. We pooled 15 studies including 827 gastric cancer patients and conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the clinicopathological significance of promoter methylation in gastric cancer. Our data revealed that the frequency of promoter methylation was higher in gastric cancer than in normal gastric tissue, Odd Ratio (OR) was 10.12 with 95% CI 5.17-19.79, < 0.00001. Additionally, the rate of promoter methylation was significantly increased in high grade of gastric cancer compared to low grade, OR was 1.64 with 95% CI 1.00-2.68, = 0.05. methylation was significantly associated with the positive lymph node metastasis, OR was 1.56 with 95% CI 1.05-2.32, = 0.03. We concluded that could serve as a biomarker for diagnosis of gastric cancer, and a drug target for development of gene therapy in gastric cancer. promoter methylation is associated with tumor poor differentiation and lymph node metastasis.