الفهرس 
I. OVARIAN CANCEROnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
O
varian cancer is the leading cause of gynaecologic cancer deaths among females and the poor survival rate of OC patients is due to the non-specific symptoms and the lack of sensitive and specific methods for the detection of early-stage OC.
Despite using CA125 as a current screening measure combined with transvaginal ultrasound, mortality rates remain high.
It is well known that both genetic and epigenetic events play a role in the development of OC. Methylation is the main epigenetic event in humans and plays an important role in tumorigenesis. DNA methylation occurs on the cytosine residues of cytosine guanine dinucleotides (CG dinucleotides), also designated as (cytosine phosphodinucleotides guanine) CpG. Enzymes known as DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) catalyse the addition of a methyl group to the cytosine ring to form methyl cytosine.
Demethylating agents approved from food and drug administration (FDA) as 5-azacytidine and decitabine are used in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) treatment through inhibiting DNMT.
The Ras association domain family (RASSF) genes comprises 10 members. They are tumor suppressor genes (TSG) that encode for Ras family effector proteins.
RASSF2 encodes for three protein isoforms (RASSF2A, RASSF2B and RASSF2C). All of these isoforms have Ras associated (RA) domain but only RASSF2A gene encodes a functioning protein and contains CpG islands and it has been reported to be inactivated by methylation in several human cancers.
Our aim was to postulate a study that aims to investigate the association between methylation of RASSF2A and OC and to correlate the results with the tumor marker CA125. In this study 16 plasma samples were collected from malignant OC patients, in addition to 16 plasma samples from patients with benign ovarian mass and 16 plasma samples from healthy controls. These samples were tested to detect RASSF2A gene methylation specific PCR and CA125 by electroche-miluminescence immunoassay.
Our results showed statistically significant difference between the malignant OC group and the benign group and between malignant OC and healthy control group as regard RASSF2A methylation status, 37.5% were methylated in the malignant OC group while in the benign group 6.3% were methylated and in healthy control group 0% (0/16) was methylated.
Regarding CA125 levels, the median was 334 IU/mL in the malignant OC group and 14 IU/mL in the benign OC group, which had statistically significant difference.
When we compared CA125 levels with the methylation status in OC group, it yielded no significant difference.