Association Between P16 Gene And RASSF1A Gene Methylation With Lung Cancer

Objective: To investigate the value of p16 and RASSF1A promoter methylation in lung cancer diagnosis, and analyse the relativity between p16 and RASSF1A promoter methylation with lung cancer. Methods: Methylation-specific PCR ( MSP ) was performed to detect the methylation status of p16 and RASSF1A genes in sptum of 30 cases of lung cancer , 33 cases of cancer-free and 27 cases of normal. Results: The frequency of methylation of the genes in lung cancer, cancer-free and normal samples were: 23.3% (7 of 30) and 6% (2 of 33) and 3.7% (1 of 27) for p16, 16.7% (5 of 30) and 6% (2 of 33) and 0 (0 of 27) for RASSF1A, respectively. There have no relativity between p16 and RASSF1A promoter methylation with age, sex, degree of smoking, type of histology and clinical stage. Conclusion: Methylation of p16 and RASSF1A were more frequent in lung cancer than in cancer-free and in normal cases (P<0.05). The methylation of p16 and RASSF1A has no correlation with age, sex, degree of smoking, type of histology and clinical stage. Methylation of p16 and RASSF1A play important roles in carcinogenesis of lung. In addition, methylation of p16 and RASSF1A may be utilized as a molecular diagnostic marker of lung cancer.