SEPT9, H4C6, and RASSF1A methylation in nasopharyngeal swabs: A reflection of potential minimally invasive biomarkers for early screening of nasopharyngeal cancer.

The potential value of epigenetic DNA methylation in early cancer screening has been demonstrated. Therefore, in this study, we performed QMS-PCR and quantitative reverse transcription PCR on the genes RASSF1A, H4C6, SEPT9, GSTP1, PAX1, SHOX2, and SOX2, which are common in epithelial cancers. We found hypermethylation in RASSF1A, H4C6 and SEPT9. The mRNA expressions of RASSF1A, H4C6 and SEPT9 in tumor group were significantly different from those in the inflammatory group and healthy group (P < .05). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of RASSF1A, H4C6 and SEPT9 genes were 0.831, 0.856 and 0.767, respectively. The areas under the AUC curve of SEPT9 + H4C6, SEPT9 + RASSF1A and H4C6 + RASSF1A are 0.946, 0.912 and 0.851, respectively. The diagnostic ability of dual gene combination is better than that of single gene combination, among which SEPT9 and H4C6 combination has the best diagnostic effect. In conclusion, our findings suggest that H4C6, RASSF1A, and SEPT9 methylation occur more frequently in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and their detection in nasopharyngeal swabs may be a minimally invasive tool for diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.