A long-range interactive DNA methylation marker panel for the promoters of HOXA9 and HOXA10 predicts survival in breast cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Most DNA cancer methylation markers are based on the transcriptional regulation of the promoter-gene relationship. Recently, the importance of long-range interactions between distal CpGs and target genes has been revealed. Here, we attempted to identify methylation markers for breast cancer that interact with distant genes. RESULTS: We performed integrated analysis using chromatin interactome data, methylome data, transcriptome data, and clinical information for breast cancer from public databases. Using the chromatin interactome and methylome data, we defined CpG-distant target gene relationships. After determining the differences in methylation between tumor and paired normal samples, the survival association, and the correlation between CpG methylation and distant target gene expression, we selected CpG methylation marker candidates. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we combined the selected markers and evaluated the prognostic model. We identified six methylation markers in HOXA9 and HOXA10 promoter regions and their long-range target genes. We experimentally validated the chromatin interactions, methylation status, and transcriptional regulation. A prognostic model showed that the combination of six methylation markers was highly associated with poor survival in independent datasets. According to our multivariate analysis, the prognostic model showed significantly better prognostic ability than other histological and molecular markers. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of long-range interacting HOXA9 and HOXA10 promoter CpGs predicted the survival of breast cancer patients, providing a comprehensive and novel approach for discovering new methylation markers. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13148-017-0373-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.