Quantitative analysis of COX-2 promoter methylation in gastric carcinoma.

These results demonstrated that COX-2 promoter methylation was significantly higher in tumor tissues, and was an early event for GC, thus, COX-2 gene methylation may be important in the initial development of gastric carcinogenesis. Thus, GCs with methylation in COX-2 may not be good candidates for treatment with COX-2 inhibitors. Furthermore, COX-2 methylation could be a significant prognostic factor predicting a favorable effect on GC patient outcome when downregulated.