Machine learning unveils an immune-related DNA methylation profile in germline DNA from breast cancer patients

To identify a set of methylation biomarkers capable of reliably distinguishing breast cancer patients from healthy controls, we performed DNA methylation profiling on germline DNA from peripheral blood samples for a predominantly Asian population comprising 256 ethnic Chinese breast cancer patients recruited from genetic testing clinics and 268 age- and ethnicity-matched non-cancer controls. We performed DNA methylation profiling for 256 ethnic Chinese cancer patients recruited from genetic testing clinics and 268 age- and ethnicity-matched non-cancer controls, using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC array.