BACKGROUND Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) undergo surgery, as well as perioperative chemoradiation or adjuvant chemotherapy primarily based on the tumor–node– metastasis (TNM) cancer staging system. However, treatment responses and prognostic outcomes of patients within the same stage vary markedly. The potential use of novel biomarkers can improve prognostication and shared decision making before implementation into certain therapies. AIM To investigate whether SUMF2 , ADAMTS5 , and PXDN methylation status could be associated with CRC prognosis. METHODS We conducted a Taiwanese cohort study involving 208 patients with CRC recruited from Tri-Service General Hospital and applied the candidate gene approach to identify three genes involved in oncogenesis pathways. A methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) and EpiTYPER DNA methylation analysis were employed to detect methylation status and to quantify the methylation level of candidate genes in tumor tissue and adjacent normal tissue from participants. We evaluated SUMF2 , ADAMTS5 , and PXDN methylation as predictors of prognosis, including recurrence-free survival (RFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS), using a Cox regression model and Kaplan–Meier analysis. RESULTS We revealed various outcomes related to methylation and prognosis. Significantly shorter PFS and OS were associated with the CpG_3+CpG_7 hypermethylation of SUMF2 from tumor tissue compared with CpG_3+CpG_7 hypomethylation [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03-4.85 for PFS, HR = 2.56 and 95%CI = 1.08-6.04 for OS]. By contrast, a significantly longer RFS was associated with CpG_2 and CpG_13 hypermethylation of ADAMTS5 from normal tissue compared with CpG_2 and CpG_13 hypomethylation [HR (95%CI) = 0.15 (0.03-0.71) for CpG_2 and 0.20 (0.04-0.97) for CpG_13]. The relationship between the methylation status of PXDN and the prognosis of CRC did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION Our study found that CpG_3+CpG_7 hypermethylation of SUMF2 from tumor tissue was associated with significantly shorter PFS and OS compared with CpG_3+CpG_7 hypomethylation. CpG_2 and CpG_13 hypermethylation of ADAMTS5 from normal tissue was associated with a significantly longer RFS compared with CpG_2 and CpG_13 hypomethylation. These methylation-related biomarkers which have implications for CRC prognosis prediction may aid physicians in clinical decision-making.

The status of DNA methylation in primary tumor tissue and adjacent tumor-free tissue is associated with the occurrence of aggressive colorectal cancer (CRC) and can aid personalized cancer treatments at early stages. Tumor tissue and matched adjacent nontumorous tissue were extracted from 208 patients with CRC, and the correlation between the methylation levels of PTGER4 and ZNF43 at certain CpG loci and the prognostic factors of CRC was determined using the MassARRAY System testing platform. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test, a Chi-square test, and McNemar’s test were used for group comparisons, and Kaplan–Meier curves and a log-rank test were used for prediction. The hypermethylation of PTGER4 at the CpG_4, CpG_5, CpG_15, and CpG_17 tumor tissue sites was strongly correlated with shorter recurrence-free survival (RFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.38–7.73 for RFS, HR = 2.35 and 95% CI = 1.17–4.71 for PFS, HR = 4.32 and 95% CI = 1.8–10.5 for OS]. By contrast, RFS and PFS were significantly longer in the case of increased methylation of ZNF43 at the CpG_5 site of normal tissue [HR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.07–5.08 for RFS, HR = 2.42 and 95% CI = 1.19–4.91 for PFS]. Aberrant methylation at specific CpG sites indicates tissue with aggressive behavior. Therefore, the differential methylation of PTGER4 and ZNF43 at specific loci can be employed for the prognosis of patients with CRC.