New Technique For Cancer Screening

Main Category: Colorectal Cancer
Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics;  Genetics
Article Date: 24 Feb 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Current research suggests that a new technique to determine tumor methylation status can be used in archived tissue samples. The related report by Balic et al, "High quality assessment of DNA methylation in archival tissues from colorectal cancer patients using quantitative high-resolution melting analysis," appears in the March 2009 issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

DNA in tumors is often altered compared with DNA in normal tissues. One common DNA alteration in cancerous tissue is hypermethylation, which results in loss of gene expression. The difference in methylation between normal and cancerous tissues can be used as a biomarker for early cancer diagnosis, risk assessment, and response to therapy.

Archival tissues, or tissues that are formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded for long-term storage, are difficult to screen for cancer biomarkers due to the low quality of their DNA. It is therefore important to develop new techniques to screen for DNA methylation that can be used in archival tissues.

Balic and colleagues examined the ability of high-resolution melting analysis (HRM) to detect methylation on archival tissues from colorectal cancer patients. They found that HRM provided similar results between archival and fresh tissues. In addition, they validated the results using the widely used MethyLight assay.

The results by Balic et al "add substantial information on the HRM-based DNA methylation analysis and demonstrate its applicability for analysis of archival tissues." This assay can be used to establish risk stratification of patients based on methylation status of specific markers and, due to its high sensitivity may have the potential to detect low amounts of methylated cells within the tumor, or even to detect low numbers of tumor cells in the background of non-tumor cells in lymph nodes and other organs. Most importantly, because formalin fixation and paraffin embedding are the most common means of tissue storage, the reported method has the potential to make DNA methylation analysis possible on this vast tissue resource.

Balic and colleagues will now evaluate the ability of HRM-based DNA methylation analysis to predict the presence of lymph node metastases and to detect very small tumor deposits in lymph nodes with known micrometastatic disease in a well defined cohort of prostate cancer samples. This may lead to new and better predictive and staging methods for prostate cancer patients.

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This study was supported partly by the Austrian National Bank Fund.

Balic M, Pichler M, Strutz J, Heitzer E, Ausch C, Samonigg H, Cote RJ, Dandachi N: High quality assessment of DNA methylation in archival tissues from colorectal cancer patients using quantitative high-resolution melting analysis. J Mol Diagn 2009 102-108

For more information on Dr. Balic, please contact Mag. Jauk Birgit, Medical University in Graz, Austria,

The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, the official publication of the Association for Molecular Pathology, co-published by the American Society for Investigative Pathology, seeks to publish high quality original papers on scientific advances in the translation and validation of molecular discoveries in medicine into the clinical diagnostic setting, and the description and application of technological advances in the field of molecular diagnostic medicine. The editors welcome for review articles that contain: novel discoveries or clinicopathologic correlations including studies in oncology, infectious diseases, inherited diseases, predisposition to disease, or the description or polymorphisms linked to disease states or normal variations; the application of diagnostic methodologies in clinical trials; or the development of new or improved molecular methods for diagnosis or monitoring of disease or disease predisposition.

Source: Angela Colmone
American Journal of Pathology

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