Abstract 5051
Background
A rapid increase in incidence of thyroid cancer has been reported in recent years. However, ambiguities between benign and malignant nodules in cytological features have led to unnecessary thyroidectomy or over-treatment. We aimed to identify DNA methylation markers to accurately classify thyroid nodules, which may be developed into non-invasive screening diagnostics for thyroid cancer to reduce unnecessary thyroid removals.
Methods
Genome-wide DNA methylation profiles of papillary thyroid cancer nodules (tissue, N = 37; plasma, N = 55), benign nodules (tissue, N = 37; plasma, N = 55) and healthy samples (buffy coat, N = 20; plasma, N = 123) were generated by a modified RRBS method. An independent RRBS dataset including 89 malignant and 72 benign nodules was derived from Yim et al. 2019. We adopted Singlera’s MONOD+ assay to interrogate the methylation state of over 4,000,000 CpG sites across more than 200,000 methylation haplotype blocks (MHBs). We identified discriminatory DNA methylation MHBs by Wilcox rank sum test. Using our dataset as a training set, we built several diagnostic models to classify thyroid nodules using machine learning methods. We validated the model by classifying public methylation datasets of thyroid tissues.
Results
We generated an initial list of top 1000 DNA methylation markers and built a classification model by the random forest method. We classified DNA methylation profiles of thyroid nodules published by Yim et al. 2019. Results show that this model achieved a sensitivity of 82%, a specificity of 94.4% and AUC of 0.94 (95% CI, 0.91-0.98). We randomly selected the 2/3 plasma samples as training data to build a prediction model. The model yielded an accuracy of 72% in the validation cohort. We also identified 2392 deferentially methylated regions by comparing benign tissues with malignant tissues. DMR associated genes are highly enriched in many cancer related pathways and MSigDB immunologic signatures, indicating the development of thyroid cancer is closely associated with immune dysfunction.
Conclusions
Our study demonstrates that DNA methylation markers can robustly differentiate thyroid nodules. They are thus promising candidates to develop non-invasive diagnostics for thyroid cancer screening.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (81772850).
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
1933 - A national comparative effectiveness study to assess definitive chemoradiation regimens in proximal oesophageal squamous cell cancer
Presenter: Judith de Vos-Geelen
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2860 - Prognostic value of metabolic response assessed by 18FDG-PET after induction chemotherapy and after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in localized esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients (pts) receiving definite CRT (dCRT)
Presenter: Yeonghak Bang
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
3881 - Comprehensive genomic profiling of early-stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Presenter: Jing Zuo
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
3944 - A novel nomogram and risk classification system predicting radiation pneumonitis in patients with esophageal cancer receiving radiotherapy
Presenter: Lu Wang
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
1956 - Drinking alcohol, smoking, multiple dysplastic lesions and the risk of field cancerization of squamous cell carcinoma in the esophagus and head and neck region
Presenter: Chikatoshi Katada
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2144 - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can eliminate the negative impact of postoperative infectious complications on recurrence in patients with esophageal cancer
Presenter: Kazuki Kano
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2403 - Comparison of chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by consolidation with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (CF) versus definitive CRT with carboplatin and paclitaxel (CP) in esophageal cancer
Presenter: Marcelle Cesca
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
3247 - Paclitaxel in Combination with Cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil(TPF) Induction Chemotherapy for Locally Advanced Borderline-resectable Esophageal Squamous cell Carcinoma: A Phase II Clinical Trial
Presenter: Yuhong Li
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
4293 - Prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma based on local immunity evaluation
Presenter: Elena Zlatnik
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
5419 - Impact of Sarcopenia and adiposity in survival of metastatic esophageal cancer (MEC)
Presenter: Aline Fares
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract