Distinguishing Lung Adenocarcinoma from Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Two Hypomethylated and Three Hypermethylated Genes: A Meta-Analysis

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 10;11(2):e0149088. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149088. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Significant differences in the aberrant methylation of genes exist among various histological types of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which includes adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Different chemotherapeutic regimens should be administered to the two NSCLC subtypes due to their unique genetic and epigenetic profiles. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to generate a list of differentially methylated genes between AC and SCC. Our meta-analysis encompassed 151 studies on 108 genes among 12946 AC and 10243 SCC patients. Our results showed two hypomethylated genes (CDKN2A and MGMT) and three hypermethylated genes (CDH13, RUNX3 and APC) in ACs compared with SCCs. In addition, our results showed that the pooled specificity and sensitivity values of CDH13 and APC were higher than those of CDKN2A, MGMT and RUNX3. Our findings might provide an alternative method to distinguish between the two NSCLC subtypes.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / diagnosis*
  • Adenocarcinoma / genetics
  • Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Protein / genetics
  • Cadherins / genetics
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / diagnosis*
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / genetics
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / diagnosis*
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / genetics
  • Core Binding Factor Alpha 3 Subunit / genetics
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 / genetics
  • DNA Methylation*
  • DNA Modification Methylases / genetics
  • DNA Repair Enzymes / genetics
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Diagnosis, Differential*
  • Epigenesis, Genetic
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Lung Neoplasms / genetics
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • APC protein, human
  • Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Protein
  • Cadherins
  • Core Binding Factor Alpha 3 Subunit
  • Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16
  • H-cadherin
  • Runx3 protein, human
  • Tumor Suppressor Proteins
  • DNA Modification Methylases
  • MGMT protein, human
  • DNA Repair Enzymes

Grants and funding

The research was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31100919 and 81371469), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LR13H020003), the K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University, the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY16H160005), Project of Scientific Innovation Team of Ningbo (2015B11050) and the Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (2014A610235). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.