Quantitation of circulating methylated RASSF1A in prognostication and monitoring of treatment response in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

4058 Background: Methylation of RASSF1A is a frequent molecular event along hepatocarcinogenesis. Our group previously developed a sensitive and specific assay in the quantitation of circulating methylated (m) RASSF1A in serum of patients (pts) with HCC. We aimed to evaluate the use of circulating mRASSF1A in prognostication and monitoring of treatment response during trans-arterial therapy of HCC. Methods: 42 pts with histologically confirmed HCC who underwent transarterial therapy were recruited. The mRASSF1A levels in serum at baseline and 8 weeks post 1st cycle of treatment were measured. The assay makes use of methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme to specifically digest unmethylated DNA, followed by real-time PCR assay to quantitate the remaining mRASSF1A(Clin. Chem. 08;54:1528-36). The prognostic significance of baseline level was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Tumor viability was determined in contrast computed tomography (CT) conducted 8 weeks after first treatment, and its ...