ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate relationship between methylation status of the APC and Bikunin CpG islands and clinicopathological characteristics of breast carcinomas.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The methylation status of APC and Bikunin CpG islands in 152 sporadic breast carcinoma samples were analyzed by methylation specific PCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>40.8% of breast carcinomas examined showed methylated signals for the APC. The methylation frequency of APC was significantly correlated to the tumor size (chi(2) = 4.041; P = 0.044), but not to patients' age, pathologic type of tumor, clinical stage, histological grade, lymph node metastasis and the status of estrogen or progestogen receptor. In addition, 24.6% of carcinoma samples examined revealed strong methylated signals for Bikunin. No significant correlation was found between the aberrant methylation of Bikunin and the clinicopathological characteristics of sporadic breast carcinomas.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The aberrant methylations of APC and Bikunin are frequent events during breast carcinogenesis. APC methylation might play a role in the progression of breast cancer.</p>