Methylation Profile of BRCA1, RASSF1A and ER in Vietnamese Women with Ovarian Cancer

DNA methylation is considered a promising biomarkers for diagnosis of cancer in general and of ovariancancer in particular. In our study, we validated the accuracy of methylation specific polymerase chain reaction(MSP) to analyze the methylation pattern of BRCA1, RASSF1A and ER in 59 and 10 Vietnamese patients withepithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) and benign ovarian tumors, respectively. We found methylation of BRCA1,RASSF1A and ER in 11/59 (18.6%), 40/59 (67.8%) and 15/59 (25.4%) of EOC cases, while methylation of BRCA1was only detected in 2/10 (20%) benign ovarian patients. Forty five out of the 59 EOCs (78%) demonstratedmethylation at one or more genes. The methylation frequency of RASSF1A was significantly associated with EOC(p<0.0005). No significant association was observed between methylation status of these genes and the clinicaland pathological parameters of tumors collected from Vietnamese women suffering from ovarian cancer.