Aberrant methylation of RARβ2and APC genes in voided urine as molecular markers for early detection of bilharzial and nonbilharzial bladder cancer

Background: Bladder cancer cells illustrate major disruptions in their DNA methylation patterns as compared with normal ones. Authors aimed to identify epigenetic molecular markers in urine for early detection of bladder cancer. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the methylation status of RARβ2 and APC genes in urine samples from 210 bladder cancer patients, 61 patients with benign urological diseases, and 49 healthy volunteers by using methylation-specific PCR. Results: Methylated RARβ2 and APC were significantly higher in bladder cancer patients (62.8%, 59.5%) than benign (16.4%, 5%) but not detected in healthy volunteers (0%) at (P < 0.0001). Both methylated genes showed no significant difference among clinicopathologic factors; however, they were detected in all grades and stages. Among the 128 patients with bilharzial bladder cancer, 94 (73.4%) showed methylated RARβ2 and 86 (67.2%) showed methylated APC. Homoplasmic methylation pattern of both genes were only detected in bilharzial bladder cancer cases. Both sensitivities and specificities of the methylated genes for bladder cancer detection were superior to urine cytology and when altogether combined, the sensitivities improved to (91.8%), (93.5%), (91.9%), and (80.9%) in detection of: bladder cancer, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, low-grade tumors, and bilharzial associated bladder cancer, respectively. Conclusion: Thus, methylated RARβ2 and APC genes might be valuable urinary molecular markers for early detection of bilharzial and nonbilharzial bladder cancer. ©2011 AACR.