Promoter methylation of H-cadherin is a potential biomarker in patients with bladder transitional cell carcinoma

H-cadherin, functions as a tumor suppressor, is frequently silenced by promoter methylation in human cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using H-cadherin methylation in tumor tissues as a potential biomarker in patients with bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). We examined the methylation status of H-cadherin in 133 primary bladder TCC samples and 43 normal bladder epithelial tissues using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) and then analyzed the associations between H-cadherin methylation and clinicopathologic features as well as patients' outcome. H-cadherin methylation was detected in 47 (35.3%) bladder TCC samples, but not found in controls (P = 0.0000). Moreover, H-cadherin methylation was significantly associated with advanced stage (P = 0.0006), high grade (P = 0.0165), larger tumor size (P = 0.0225), tumor recurrence (P = 0.0106), and poor prognosis (P = 0.0000). In addition, multivariate analysis indicated that H-cadherin methylation is independently associated with poor outcome and had a relative risk of death of 3.832 (P = 0.0071, 95% confidence interval: 1.443-10.176). The results suggest that H-cadherin methylation may be used as a potential biomarker for the malignancy of bladder TCC and as an independent prognostic biomarker in patients with bladder TCC.