Association between multiple gene promoter hypermethylation and the risk of gastric cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Several studies have demonstrated an association between multiple gene hypermethylation and gastric cancer. However, the intrinsic mechanisms remain elusive and highly debatable. To this end, our study aims to investigate the correlation between the methylation status of multiple gene promoters and gastric cancer.Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, WanFang, Cqvip, and Cochrane Library were queried from inception to May 2021, and the relationship between the methylation status of the CpG islands and gastric cancer risk was systematically assessed under the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The incidence of DNA methylation between tumor and non-tumor tissues was compared, and the clinicopathological significance of DNA methylation in gastric carcinoma was further evaluated. The odds ratio (OR) was estimated with a 95% confidence interval (CI), and forest plots were generated using the fixed-effects or random-effects model. Results: In total, 201 studies were enrolled, and a higher frequency of CpG islands methylation was iden-tified in gastric cancer tissues than in non-neoplastic tissues. This suggests that aberrant polygene methy-lation might be associated with the initial onset and progression of gastric cancer.Conclusion: This study sheds light on the significance of polygene methylation status in gastric cancer. The DNA methylation of these genes may serve as underlying epigenetic biomarkers, providing a promis-ing molecular diagnostic approach for human gastric cancer clinical diagnosis. More large randomized trials are needed to confirm the findings.(c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l.