RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the aberrant methylation of fragile histidine triad (FHIT) gene and to explore possible relationship between the aberrant methylation of FHIT and clinicopathological features in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The hypermethylation of FHIT was detected by the methylation specific PCR (MSP) method in 45 patients with HCC (tumoral and nontumoral tissue), 14 cases of normal livers and 4 HCC cell lines (SK-Hep-1, Hep-G2, Hep-3B and Huh7). The correlation of FHIT methylation and clinicopathological features was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequencies of hypermethylation of FHIT in tumoral and nontumoral tissue, normal liver and cell lines were 71.1%, 64.4%, 14.3% and 75.0%, respectively. A significant relation between hypermethylation of FHIT and poor survival was present (P = 0.0430).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Hypermethylation of FHIT is a frequent and early event in HCC, it might relate to a poor prognosis for patients with HCC.</p>