Quantitative assessment of the diagnostic role of FHIT promoter methylation in non-small cell lung cancer

Aberrant methylation of CpG islands acquired in promoter regions plays an important role in carcinogenesis. Accumulated evidence demonstrates FHIT gene promoter hyper-methylation is involved in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To test the diagnostic ability of FHIT methylation status on NSCLC, thirteen studies, including 2,119 samples were included in our meta-analysis. Simultaneously, four independent DNA methylation datasets from TCGA and GEO database were analyzed for validation. The pooled odds ratio of FHIT promoter methylation in cancer samples was 3.43 (95% CI: 1.85 to 6.36) compared with that in controls. In subgroup analysis, significant difference of FHIT gene promoter methylation status in NSCLC and controls was found in Asians but not in Caucasian population. In validation stage, 950 Caucasian samples, including 126 paired samples from TCGA, 568 cancer tissues and 256 normal controls from GEO database were analyzed, and all 8 CpG sites near the promoter region of FHIT gene were not significantly differentially methylated. Thus the diagnostic role of FHIT gene in the lung cancer may be relatively limited in the Caucasian population but useful in the Asians.