Detection of DNA Hypermethylation in Blood Samples of Breast Cancer Iraqi Patients

In cancers, epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation are involved in the earliest phases of tumorigenesis. Aberrant DNA methylation has been recognised as one of the most common molecular abnormalities in breast cancer and is considered a candidate biomarker of diagnosis .In this study DNA methylation was examined whether it could be correlated with breast cancer in Iraq using two classical restriction enzyme pairs Hpall - Mspl. Thirty women with breast cancer (BC) Iraqi patients and 25 apparently healthy individuals were subjected to this study. Results show that 22 out of 30 (73.3%) Iraqi BC patients have DNA hypermethylation when compared with control group, which indicate that DNA hypermethylation may play an important role in breast cancer cases in Iraq. Results of this approach support the idea that DNA hypermethylation enable breast cancer prediction and using of this biomarker for prognostic and therapeutic goal. So, this research recommends for an extensive Iraqi study include larger sample size to confirm this important result.