Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2019; 7(19): 2916-2929
Published online Oct 6, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i19.2916
DNA methylation detection methods used in colorectal cancer
Yu-Xia Zhan, Guang-Hua Luo
Yu-Xia Zhan, Guang-Hua Luo, Comprehensive Laboratory, Changzhou Key Lab of Individualized Diagnosis and Treatment Associated with High Technology Research, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou 213003, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: The two authors equally contributed to this paper with respect to its conception and design, article screening, review and analysis, refining and editing, and approval of the final version.
Supported by the Changzhou High-Level Medical Talents Training Project, No. 2016ZCLJ002.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Both authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Guang-Hua Luo, MD, PhD, Professor, Senior Researcher, Comprehensive Laboratory, Changzhou Key Lab of Individualized Diagnosis and Treatment Associated with High Technology Research, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No. 185, Juqian Street, Tianning District, Changzhou 213003, Jiangsu Province, China. shineroar@163.com
Telephone: +86-519-68870619 Fax: +86-519-86621235
Received: March 22, 2019
Peer-review started: March 22, 2019
First decision: August 1, 2019
Revised: August 22, 2019
Accepted: September 9, 2019
Article in press: September 9, 2019
Published online: October 6, 2019
Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major contributor to the number of cancer-related deaths that occur annually worldwide. With the development of molecular biology methods, an increasing number of molecular biomarkers have been identified and investigated. CRC is believed to result from an accumulation of epigenetic changes, and detecting aberrant DNA methylation patterns is useful for both the early diagnosis and prognosis of CRC. Numerous studies are focusing on the development of DNA methylation detection methods or DNA methylation panels. Thus, this review will discuss the commonly used techniques and technologies to evaluate DNA methylation, their merits and deficiencies as well as the prospects for new methods.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Cancer screening, Marker, DNA methylation detection

Core tip: We screened the literature on the application of DNA methylation detection technologies as well as colorectal cancer (CRC) associated DNA methylation markers in the diagnosis or prognosis evaluation of CRC. Apart from introducing each method in detail and describing the methylation status of several candidate genes being assayed, we also evaluated the advantages or disadvantages of each method. More importantly, we discuss the new DNA methylation detection methods and their potential use. At last, we prospect on how these methylation markers could be used and what kind of methylation detection techniques might be more practical in clinical work.