Genome-wide DNA hypomethylation is associated with a worse prognosis in early-stage colorectal cancer. To measure genome-wide DNA methylation levels, long interspersed nucleotide element (LINE-1) repeats are used as a surrogate marker. Cohort studies on the clinical impact of genome-wide DNA methylation level in patients with only early-stage colon cancer, are currently lacking. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of LINE-1 methylation in a stage II colon cancer cohort (n = 164). Manual needle microdissection of tumor areas was performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue sections followed by DNA extraction. Bisulfite converted DNA was used to assess tumor LINE-1 methylation level by qPCR. Patients with LINE-1 hypomethylated tumors had a significantly worse overall survival compared to patients with a higher level of LINE-1 tumor DNA methylation (HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.03-2.75; p = 0.04). This effect was more prominent in patients aged over 65 years (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.13-3.52; p = 0.02), although the test for age interaction was not significant. No significant effect on recurrence-free survival was observed. Based on these results, tumor LINE-1 hypomethylation is associated with a worse overall survival in stage II colon cancer. Whether the origin of this causation is cancer-specific or age-related can be debated.
Keywords: LINE-1; biomarker; methylation; stage II colon cancer.