Hypermethylation of TMEM240 predicts poor hormone therapy response and disease progression in breast cancer

Table 4 TMEM240 promoter hypermethylation in relation to drug treatment response in TCGA cohort^a

Characteristics	Total	Complete response N (%)	Progressive disease N (%)	P value
Chemotherapy^b	257	239 (93.0)	18 (7.0)
Low methylation	99	97 (98.0)	2 (2.0)	0.012
High methylation	158	142 (89.9)	16 (10.1)	0.012
Hormone therapy^c
Low methylation	24	21 (87.5)	3 (12.5)	< 0.001
High methylation	11	2 (18.2)	9 (81.8)	< 0.001
Targeted molecular therapy^d
Low methylation	4	4 (100.0)	0 (0.0)	0.515
High methylation	8	6 (75.0)	2 (25.0)	0.515

^aThese results were analyzed by the Fisher’s exact test. The patients with a treatment duration of greater than 4 weeks were included in this analysis. When the β value of TMEM240 methylation level in breast tumors was higher than 0.25 was defined as hypermethylation from TCGA data set using Infinium Human Methylation 450 K BeadChip
^bChemotherapy drugs:
antimetabolites drugs: 5-fluorouracil, capecitabine, gemcitabine, methotrexate
alkylating drugs: cyclophosphamide, cisplatin and carboplatin
topoisomerase inhibitors: doxorubicin, mitoxantrone and epirubicin
microtubule inhibitors: taxanes, vinca alkaloids, and epothilones
^cHormone therapy drug:
Estrogen inhibitors: tamoxifen and fulvestrant
aromatase inhibitors: letrozole, anastrozole and exemestane
^dTargeted Molecular therapy: Avastin and Herceptin

ISSN: 1528-3658