Table III.
Association between RASSF1A promoter methylation, protein expression of RASSF1A and RASSF1C and data of patients.
| Patients/specimens/qPCR results Variables, n | RASSF1A promoter methylation and protein assessment | RASSF1C protein assessment | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
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| Unmethylation vs. hypermethylation (%) | Protein level relative to control samples (%) | Protein level relative to control samples (%) | |||||||
|
|
|
|
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| Unmethylated (%) | Hypermethylated (%) | P-valuea | Low (≤10.09b) | High (>10.09b) | P-valuea | Low (>3.03b) | High (≤3.03b) | P-valuea | |
| Age (years) | |||||||||
| ≤62 (n=29) | 17 (29) | 12 (21) | 1.00 | 24 (41) | 5 (9) | 0.35 | 24 (41) | 5 (9) | 1.00 |
| >62 (n=29) | 18 (31) | 11 (19) | 20 (34) | 9 (16) | 24 (41) | 5 (9) | |||
| Gender | |||||||||
| Female (n=280) | 14 (24) | 14 (24) | 0.18 | 22 (38) | 6 (10) | 0.76 | 24 (41) | 4 (8) | 0.73 |
| Male (n=30) | 21 (36) | 9 (16) | 22 (38) | 8 (14) | 24 (41) | 6 (10) | |||
| Tumor size (cm) | |||||||||
| ≤7 (n=34) | 19 (33) | 15 (26) | 0.43 | 25 (43) | 9 (16) | 0.76 | 28 (47) | 7 (12) | 0.51 |
| >7 (n=24) | 16 (28) | 8 (13) | 19 (33) | 5 (8) | 21 (36) | 3 (5) | |||
| Fuhrman's histological grade | |||||||||
| 1 + 2 (n=25) | 17 (29) | 8 (14) | 0.41 | 15 (26) | 10 (17) | 0.028 | 19 (33) | 6 (10) | 0.3 |
| 3 + 4 (n=33) | 18 (31) | 15 (26) | 29 (50) | 4 (7) | 29 (50) | 4 (7) | |||
| TNM stage groupingc | |||||||||
| Non-metastatic (n=32) | 24 (41) | 8 (14) | 0.01 | 20 (33) | 12 (20) | 0.006 | 27 (44) | 5 (8) | 1.00 |
| Metastatic n=26 | 11 (19) | 15 (26) | 27 (41) | 2 (6) | 24 (40) | 5 (8) | |||
| RASSF1A/RASSF1C qPCR expression level | |||||||||
| Low (≤0.266 for RASSF1A) or (≥0.19 for RASSF1C) | 17 (29) | 16 (28) | 0.17 | 31 (53) | 2 (3) | 0.0004 | 20 (34) | 0 | 0.01 |
| High (>0.266 for RASSF1A) or (<0.19 for RASSF1C) | 18 (31) | 7 (12) | 13 (22) | 12 (21) | 28 (48) | 10 (18) | |||
a
P-values were calculated by Fisher's 2×2 test;
b
protein content was expressed in densitometric units;
c
TNM division as described in Table I.