HOXA methylation in normal endometrium from premenopausal women is associated with the presence of ovarian cancer: A proof of principle study
2009
Abstract
DNA methylation of polycomb group target (PCGT) genes is an early step in carcinogenesis and could potentially be assayed to determine cancer risk prediction. To assess whether methylation changes in PCGT genes in normal tissue is able to predict the presence of cancer, we studied HOXA gene methylation in normal endometrium from premenopausal ovarian cancer patients and age-matched healthy controls without ovarian cancer.
DNA methylation of HOXA9 and HOXA11 genes in normal endometrium was associated with ovarian cancer in an initial test set and this was subsequently confirmed in independent validation sample sets.