TY - JOUR T1 - Aberrant Methylation of the <em>UNC5C</em> Gene is Frequently Detected in Advanced Colorectal Cancer JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 271 LP - 273 VL - 29 IS - 1 AU - KENJI HIBI AU - HIROKI MIZUKAMI AU - ATSUSHI SHIRAHATA AU - TETSUHIRO GOTO AU - MAKIKO SAKATA AU - MITSUO SAITO AU - KAZUYOSHI ISHIBASHI AU - GAKU KIGAWA AU - HIROSHI NEMOTO AU - YUTAKA SANADA Y1 - 2009/01/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/29/1/271.abstract N2 - Background: UNC5C, one of the Netrin-1 receptors, belongs to the functional dependence receptor family, members of which share the ability to induce apoptosis in the absence of their ligands. Recently, two reports indicated that UNC5C methylation was closely associated with loss of gene expression in colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: The methylation status of the UNC5C gene was examined in primary carcinomas and the corresponding normal tissues derived from 49 patients with colorectal cancer using quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (qMSP) and the correlation between the methylation status and the clinicopathological findings was evaluated. Results. Aberrant methylation of the UNC5C gene was detected in 34 out of the 49 (69%) primary colon carcinomas, suggesting that the aberrant methylation of UNC5C was frequent in colorectal cancer. The clinicopathological data were then tested for correlation with this result. A significantly greater proportion of cases with methylated UNC5C was found in Dukes' stage C (p=0.0380) than in earlier stages. Conclusion: UNC5C might act as a tumor suppressor and UNC5C methylation might present a malignant potential in colorectal cancer. Copyright© 2009 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved ER -