Trial Information

Development of a Non-Invasive DNA Methylation-Based Assay System for the Risk Assessment of Urothelial Carcinoma

In the recent years, technologies of genomics, expression analysis and proteomics have been
brought to guide the study of risk assessment and early detection of cancers. This proposed
study aims to develop a non-invasive DNA methylation-based assay system elucidating a panel
of aberrantly hypermethylated genes from urothelial tumors and urine sediments, to improve
the risk assessment of urothelial carcinoma; such as early diagnosis, prognosis, and
prediction of response to therapeutic regimes. This proposal will establish several
techniques to study the methylation status on gene promoter regions. Three tasks will be
achieved in this study: (1) Profiling the aberrant DNA methylation in urothelial carcinoma
and determining potential prediction biomarkers. (2) Establishing a non-invasive assay by
detecting DNA hypermethylation status in exfoliated cells collected from void urine; (3)
Mapping the DNA hypermethylation changes from normal to malignant urothelial tumors and
studying the underlying mechanism. Through the collaboration of a genetic toxicologist
(Te-Chang Lee, PhD, IBMS), a urologist (Yeong-Shiau Pu, MD/PhD, NTUH) and epidemiologists
(Hung-Yi Chiou, PhD, Taipei Medical University), we will explore the risk biomarkers for
urothelial carcinoma.