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Cancer Genes and Genomics

Epigenetic Heterogeneity of High-Grade Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia: Clues for Clonal Progression in Prostate Carcinogenesis

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Head and Neck Cancer Research Division, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland and Departments of ² Pathology, ³ Genetics, and ⁴ Urology, Portuguese Oncology Institute-Porto; ⁵ Department of Pathology and Molecular Immunology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, University of Porto; and ⁶ Fernando Pessoa University School of Health Sciences, Porto, Portugal

Requests for reprints: Carmen Jeronimo, Department of Genetics, Portuguese Oncology Institute-Porto, Rua Dr. Antonio Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. Phone: 351-225084000; Fax: 351-225084016. E-mail: cjeroni{at}ufp.pt

High-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) is the most likely precursor of prostate adenocarcinoma, but the frequency and timing of epigenetic changes found in prostate carcinogenesis has not been extensively documented. Thus, the promoters of three genes (APC, GSTP1, and RARß2) involved in prostate carcinogenesis were tested by quantitative methylation-specific PCR in tissue DNA from 30 prostate carcinomas, 128 high-grade PIN lesions, and 30 normal prostate tissue samples dissected from 30 radical prostatectomy specimens using laser capture microdissection. The percentage of methylated alleles (PMA) was calculated for each gene, and hierarchical cluster analysis was used to define the degree of similarity of epigenetic alterations among the various samples. We found that PMA values of APC and RARß2 were higher than those of GSTP1 in all three types of tissue samples and median PMA values for all three genes were higher in prostate cancer. By cluster analysis, 26 of 30 prostate carcinomas and 82 of 128 high-grade PIN lesions were grouped in the "high methylation" branch, whereas 24 of 30 normal prostate tissue samples were allocated in the "low methylation" branch. Although high-grade PIN lesions are epigenetically more similar to prostate carcinoma than to normal prostate tissue, paired prostate carcinoma and high-grade PIN lesions did not always segregate together. We concluded that APC and RARß2 hypermethylation is frequent in normal prostate tissue and the progressive enrichment in cells carrying methylated alleles observed in high-grade PIN and prostate carcinoma is consistent with clonal progression. Because GSTP1 promoter methylation is mainly observed in prostate carcinoma and some high-grade PIN lesions, it represents an important marker for the transition of in situ to invasive neoplasia. (Mol Cancer Res 2006;4(1):1–8)