Abstract

Background: Cancer of the stomach represents one of the most common cancers all over the world. In these patients, several tumor suppressor genes are deactivated leading to tumor development. The deactivation of tumor suppressor genes, caused by hypermethylation of its promoters, has been correlated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients.
Materials and methods: In this study, the methylation status of the tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A was determined in the cell free DNA (cfDNA) of 55 patients with metastatic gastric cancer, using methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Results: The promoter region of RASSF1A gene was found to be methylated in 42 patients, but in none of the healthy control samples. Methylation of the promoter region of this gene was found to be correlated with shorter progression free survival (PFS, p=0.026) and overall survival (OS, p=0.001) as compared to that of patients without promoter methylation.
Conclusions: These results are of interest and further studies are necessary to clarify whether hypermethylation of the RASSF1A tumor suppressor gene, could take a place as a biomarker for the early diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of response to treatment in patients with metastatic gastric cancer.

Keywords

methylation, RASSF1A, gastric cancer, prognosis