Significance of RAS-association domain family 1A gene methylation in plasma of patients with medulloblastoma

LI Ze; YE Yuqin; HE Xiaosheng; ZHANG Zhiyin; LIU Zhigang; YUAN Xing; LI Hua

Abstract：Objective The correlation between RAS-association domain family 1A (RASSF1 A) gene methylation in plasma and clinicopathological features of medulloblastoma was invesitigated.Methods Plasma and tumor tissue of 82 medulloblastoma patients and 43 patients with benign infratentorial tumor were included in the study,and the plasma of 19 healthy subjects was served as normal controls.The methylation status of RASSF1A gene in plasma and tumor tissue was detected by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSPCR).Results RASSF1A gene methylation rate was 59.76％ in medulloblastoma tissue and 48.78％ in paired plasma.The gene methylation in plasma was significantly correlated with that in medulloblastoma tissue (r =0.868,P ＜ 0.001).The sensitivity and specificity of RASSF1A gene methylation in plasma were 97.50％ and 76.19％,respectively.And the methylation of RASSF1A gene was correlated with the tumor molecular classification and tumor clinical stage (P ＜ 0.05),but had no correlation to gender,age,tumor location and tumor pathological type of patients (P ＞ 0.05).In addition,no RASSF1A gene methylation was found in plasma and tumor from benign infratentorial tumor patients and healthy subjects.Conclusion The methylation rate of RASSF1A gene in plasma is significantly correlated with that in medulloblastoma tissue.Additionally,the gene methylation is also correlated with the molecular classification and clinical stage of medulloblastoma.