Gene Methylation Analysis In Supplementary Diagnosis Of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths all over the world and early diagnosis is critical to reduce the mortality,many researches is focusing on developing new methods for lung cancer diagnosis.Over the past decade,DNA methylation,which was a main mechanism of epigenetics,had been intensely studied in tumorigenesis.Many researches indicated that lung carcinogenesis was correlated with the methylation of many genes including some tumor suppressor genes.Gene silence induced by aberrant hypermethylation of these genes played an important role in lung carcinogenesis,moreover,methylation rates of some genes were significantly higher in lung cancer than those in control and thus these methylated genes can be excellent biomarkers in supplementary diagnosis of lung cancer.Methylation rates of some genes(SHOX2,CDKN2 A,APC,RASSF1 A,FHIT,DCC,etc.)in lung cancer tissue,lymph nodes,bronchial lavage fluid,peripheral blood and sputum samples of lung cancer patients were significantly higher than those in control groups,gene methylation as a biomarker had relatively high sensitivity and specificity in lung cancer diagnosis.Besides,co-analysis of multiple mathylated genes may improve the sensitivity and specificity of lung cancer diagnosis.Researches of lung cancer diagnosis by gene methylation analysis in different samples of lung cancer patients were reviewed and some methylated gene markers which had high sensitivity and specificity in lung cancer diagnosis were introduced in this paper.