Presentation Abstract

Abstract Number: 4896
Presentation Title: The detection and analysis of epigenetic and genetic changes in ovarian tumor tissue
Presentation Time: Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010, 8:00 AM -11:00 AM
Location: Exhibit Hall A-C, Poster Section 3
Poster Section: 3
Poster Board Number: 6
Author Block: Matthew Poulin, Jessica Xu, Liying Yan. EpigenDx, Inc., Worcester, MA
Abstract Body: Human ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Most ovarian cancers are ovarian epithelial carcinomas or malignant germ cell tumors. Similar to other cancers, the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is critical for treatment of the disease and the better chance for recovery. If diagnosed and treated early when the cancer is confined to the ovary, the 5-year survival rate is over 90%. Many studies involving various types of human cancers proved and aberrant miRNA expression occurs in many cancers, even at the early stage of the diseases, indicating its causative role. We have analyzed 10 ovarian tumors and their associated normal tissue, and two ovarian cancer cell lines, with methylation assays for over 25 different cancer related genes (p16, ESR, BRCA1, Rassf1, RAR beta, ECAD, etc.) including several miRNA genes. Global methylation assays show the ovarian tumors to be hypomethylated compared to the corresponding normal tissue. Several of the miRNA genes we have analyzed in ovarian tumor tissue show statistically changes in methylation pattern within their promoters compared with adjacent normal tissue. ANOVA analysis shows a variance with a p value of 0.00001. Expression analysis will be performed to correlate with the methylation data. Additionally, an extensive SNP analysis will be conducted on these tissues in order to establish specific screening parameters that will aid in early detection of this disease.