The signature of liver cancer in immune cells DNA methylation

BACKGROUND: The idea that changes to the host immune system are critical for cancer progression was proposed a century ago and recently regained experimental support. RESULTS: Herein, the hypothesis that hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) leaves a molecular signature in the host peripheral immune system was tested by profiling DNA methylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and T cells from a discovery cohort (n = 69) of healthy controls, chronic hepatitis, and HCC using Illumina 450K platform and was validated in two validation sets (n = 80 and n = 48) using pyrosequencing. CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals a broad signature of hepatocellular carcinoma in PBMC and T cells DNA methylation which discriminates early HCC stage from chronic hepatitis B and C and healthy controls, intensifies with progression of HCC, and is highly enriched in immune function-related genes such as PD-1, a current cancer immunotherapy target. These data also support the feasibility of using these profiles for early detection of HCC. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13148-017-0436-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.