Genome-wide Mapping of 5-Hydroxymethylcytosines in Circulating Cell-free DNA as a Non-invasive Approach for Early Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
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ABSTRACT: Background: The lack of highly sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers is a major contributor to the poor outcomes of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We sought to develop a non-invasive diagnostic approach using circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) for the early detection of HCC. Methods: Applying the 5hmC-Seal technique, we obtained genome-wide 5-hydroxymethylcytosines (5hmC) in cfDNA samples from 2,554 Chinese subjects: 1,204 HCC patients, 392 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection (CHB) or liver cirrhosis (LC), and 958 healthy individuals and patients with benign liver lesions. A diagnostic model for early HCC was developed through case-control analyses using the elastic net regularization for feature selection. Results: The 5hmC-Seal data from HCC patients showed a genome-wide distribution enriched with liver-derived enhancer marks. We developed a 32-gene diagnostic model that accurately distinguished early HCC (stage 0/A) based on the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system from non-HCC (validation set: AUC = 88.4%; 95% CI, 85.8-91.1%), showing superior performance over α-fetoprotein (AFP). Besides detecting patients with early stage or small tumors (e.g., ≤ 2.0 cm) from non-HCC, the 5hmC model showed high capacity for distinguishing early HCC from high risk subjects with CHB or LC history (validation set: AUC = 84.6%; 95% CI, 80.6-88.7%), also significantly outperforming AFP. Furthermore, the 5hmC diagnostic model appeared to be independent from potential confounders (e.g., smoking/alcohol intake history). Conclusions: We have developed and validated a non-invasive approach with clinical application potential for the early detection of HCC that are still surgically resectable in high risk individuals.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE112679 | GEO | 2019/08/07
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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