Massively parallel deep bisulfite sequencing of plasma cfDNA methylation in HCC

In this study, we applied targeted massively parallel semiconductor sequencing to assess methylation on a panel of genes (FBLN1, HINT2, LAMC1, LTBP1, LTBP2, PSMA2, PSMA7, PXDN, TGFB1, UBE2L3, VIM and YWHAZ) in plasma circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and to evaluate the potential of these genes as HCC biomarkers in two different series, one from France (42 HCC cases and 42 controls) and one from Thailand (42 HCC cases, 26 chronic liver disease cases and 42 controls). We also analyzed a set of HCC and adjacent tissues and liver cell lines to further compare with ‘The Cancer Genome Atlas’ (TCGA) data.