Highly-methylated colorectal cancers show poorly-differentiated phenotype.

The combined methylation status of pl6, pl4, HLTF, SOCS-1, CDH13, RUNX3 and CHFR was examined in 58 resected primary colorectal cancers using methylation-specific PCR, and the methylation status was correlated with the clinicopathological features of the affected patients. A significant difference in histology (p = 0.0041) was observed when the number of methylated genes of poorly-differentiated colorectal cancers was compared to that of other differentiated ones. Poorly-differentiated colorectal cancers preferentially exhibited gene methylation.