High-resolution melting analysis of BLU methylation levels in gastric, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers.

BLU was recently characterized as a novel tumor suppressor gene (TSG), and was epigenetically silenced in some tumor cell lines and primary tumor samples. High-resolution melting (HRM) analysis has been used as a novel tool for analysis of promoter methylation. We used HRM analysis to detect the methylation levels of BLU gene in 100 gastric, 100 colorectal, and 70 pancreatic cancers, and also in an equal number of adjacent normal tissues for all. The frequency of BLU methylation in all three types of cancer was significantly higher than that in normal tissues. And the expression levels of BLU were inversely correlated with methylation levels.