Detection of methylation of the RAR-β gene in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The aim of this study was to detect methylation of the RAR-β gene in tissues from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The methylation of the RAR-β gene in DNA from 80 cases with NSCLC and corresponding non-malignant tissues was tested using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR; MSP). The results showed that the total frequency of RAR-β methylation was significantly higher in lung cancer tissues compared to the corresponding non-malignant tissues (57.5 vs. 17.5%) (P<0.01). However, no significant difference was found in various clinical stages and types of lung cancer (P>0.05). A significant difference was observed in the various pathological types (P<0.05). RAR-β gene methylation is closely correlated with the development process of NSCLC, particularly squamous cell carcinoma.