Loci-specific differences in blood DNA methylation in HBV-negative populations at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma development - post-diagnostic HCC blood samples

Genome wide DNA methylation profiling of blood samples collected from patients after diagnosis with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (cases) vs. blood samples collected from healthy individuals without family history of cancer (controls). The Illumina Infinium 450K Human DNA methylation Beadchip v1.2 was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 450,000 CpGs in human samples corresponding to cases (post-diagnostic HCC) and controls. Samples included 24 cases and 24 controls. Cases were matched with controls on gender, age, ethnicity, hepatitis C infection, and diabetes. The presence or absence of HCC in our study was determined based on the AASLD criteria. Bisulphite converted DNA from the 42 samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 450k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.2