Diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma by using methylation specific-PCR

To find a more sensitive and earlier diagnostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma, methylation-profils of CpG islands in the promoter of eleven genes in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) carcinoma and pericarcinoma tissues from ten patients were examined by using methylation-specific PCR (MSP) method. MSP was used to detect the methylation of p16, p53, Secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) and SFRP2 promoters. Meanwhile, plasma alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels in 53 patients were also determined. The results showed that HCC was closely correlated to methylation in promoter of tumor-suppressing gene p16, p53, SFRP1 and SFRP2. The results suggest that methylation of SFRP2 promoter is possible a better marker for diagnosis of HCC than plasma Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. The false negative of SFRP1 and SFRP2 are perfectly complementary. If SFRP1 and SFRP2 were both considered as a complementary positive marker at the same time, the accurate rate for diagnosis of HCC is 100%.