High specificity of quantitative methylation-specific pcr analysis for mgmt promoter hypermethylation detection in gliomas

Abstract

Normal brain tissue from 28 individuals and 50 glioma samples were analyzed by real-time Quantitative Methylation-Specific PCR (QMSP). Data from this analysis were compared with results obtained on the same samples by MSP. QMSP analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference in both methylation level (P =.000009 Mann Whitney Test) and frequencies (P =.0000007, Z-test) in tumour samples as compared with normal brain tissues. Although QMSP and MSP showed similar sensitivity, the specificity of QMSP analysis was significantly higher (93; CI95: 84-100) as compared with MSP (64; 95CI: 46-82). Our results suggest that QMSP analysis may represent a powerful tool to identify glioma patients that will benefit from alkylating agents chemotherapy. Copyright © 2009 Paola Parrella et al.