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. 2016 Jan;38(1):9-14.
doi: 10.1002/hed.23842. Epub 2015 Jun 26.

Serum biomarkers for detection of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Wojciech K Mydlarz  1 , Patrick T Hennessey  1 , Hao Wang  2 , Andre Lopez Carvalho  3 , Joseph A Califano  1   4
Affiliations

Serum biomarkers for detection of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Wojciech K Mydlarz et al. Head Neck. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Detection of hypermethylated circulating tumor DNA has the potential to be a minimally invasive, low cost, and reproducible method for cancer detection.

Methods: We evaluated serum from 100 patients with known head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and 50 healthy control patients for 3 previously described methylation targets, endothelin receptor type B (EDNRB), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A or p16), and deleted in colorectal carcinoma (DCC), using quantitative methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (qMSPCR).

Results: EDNRB hypermethylation was identified in the serum of 10% of the patients with HNSCC but in none of the control patients. DCC hypermethylation was detected in 2 serum samples from patients with cancer that also amplified EDNRB and one of these samples also had p16 hypermethylation. EDNRB hypermethylation was statistically significant by Fisher's exact test (p = .03) when comparing HNSCC to controls.

Conclusions: Serum EDNRB hypermethylation is a highly specific but not sensitive serum biomarker for HNSCC.

Keywords: epigenetics; head and neck cancer; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC); hypermethylation; screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: None of the authors of this manuscript have any relationships, financial or otherwise, or actual, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
EDNRB, DCC and p16 QMSP results in HNSCC and normal serum DNA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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