Promoter hypermethylation inactivate tumor suppressor FAM134B and is associated with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer

Abstract

The present study aims to examine promoter methylation status of FAM134B in a large cohort of patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas. The clinical significances and correlations of FAM134B promoter methylation with its expression are also analysed. Methylation‐specific high‐resolution melt‐curve analysis followed by sequencing was used to identify FAM134B promoter methylation in colorectal adenomas (N = 32), colorectal adenocarcinomas (N = 164), matched adjacent non‐neoplastic colorectal mucosae (N = 83) and colon cancer cell lines (N = 4). FAM134B expression was studied by real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry, and Western blots. FAM134B promoter methylation was more frequent in adenocarcinomas (52%; 85/164) when compared to that of adenomas (28%; 9/32) and non‐neoplastic mucosae (35%; 29/83). Cancer cells exhibited higher methylation when compared to non‐neoplastic cells. FAM134B promoter methylation was inversely correlated with low FAM134B copy number and mRNA/protein expressions, whereas in‐vitro demethylation has restored FAM134B expression in colon cancer cells. FAM134B promoter methylation was associated with high histological grade (P = .025), presence of peri‐neural infiltration (P = .012), lymphovascular invasion (P = .021), lymph node metastasis (P = .0001), distant metastasis (P = .0001) and advanced pathological stages (P = .0001). In addition, FAM134B promoter methylation correlated with cancer recurrence and poor survival rates of patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas. To conclude, FAM134B promoter methylation plays a key role in regulating FAM134B expression in vitro and in vivo, which in turn contributes to the prediction of the biological aggressiveness of colorectal adenocarcinomas. Furthermore, FAM134B methylation might act as a marker in predicting clinical prognosis in patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas.