Hypermethylation of the BRCA2 gene promoter and its co-hypermethylation with the BRCA1 gene promoter in patients with breast cancer

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The BRCA2 gene is an important tumour suppressor in breast cancer, and alterations in BRCA2 may lead to cancer progression. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of hypermethylation of the BRCA2 gene promoter and its co-hypermethylation with the BRCA1 gene promoter with the development and course of breast cancer in women. METHODS: This study included 74 women with breast cancer (tumour tissue samples and peripheral blood) and 62 women without oncological pathology (peripheral blood) – control group. RESULTS: Hypermethylation of the BRCA2 gene was significantly more frequently detected in the tumour tissue of women with breast cancer compared to their peripheral blood and peripheral blood of control subjects (p = 0.0006 and p = 0.00001, respectively). Hypermethylation of BRCA2 was more frequently detected in patients with breast cancer over the age of 50 and in patients with higher Ki67 expression levels (p = 0.045 and p = 0.045, respectively). There was a high frequency of unmethylated BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene combination in women of the control group compared to women with breast cancer, both in blood samples and tumour tissue samples (p = 0.014 and p = 0.00001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our study confirms the hypothesis that BRCA2 hypermethylation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of breast cancer and the importance of assessing its co-hypermethylation with BRCA1 in predicting the course of the disease.