Table 4.

Association between methylation of the 4 candidate genes in early- and late-onset BC

		Group-A								Group-B
		PHF2		FANCC		PTCH1		XPA		PHF2		FANCC		PTCH1		XPA
		M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-	M+	M-
PHF2	M+	-	-	6	4	2	8	4	6	-	-	10	3	7	6	5	8
	M-			8	29	13	24	4	33			13	33	14	32	9	37
p value		-		0.02*		0.36		0.03*		-		0.001*		0.12		0.16
FANCC	M+	-	-	-	-	6	8	7	7	-	-	-	-	7	16	7	16
	M-					9	24	1	32					14	22	7	29
p value		-		-		0.29		0.0001*		-		-		0.51		0.33
PTCH1	M+	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	11	-	-	-	-	-	-	9	12
	M-							4	28							5	33
p value		-		-		-		0.23		-		-		-		0.01*

Abbreviations used are: M+: Methylation positive; M-: Methylation negative; * indicates p value significance