In conclusion, for the first time, we report the association of aberrant methylation of the APC gene promoter with the IBC phenotype, which might be of biological and clinical importance.
Using the maximal methylation ratio observed in benign breast tissue as a threshold, the methylation frequency of two genes, RARbeta2 and APC, was significantly increased in IBC (n = 19) when compared to non-IBC (n = 81): 53 vs. 23% for RARbeta2 (p = 0.012) and 84 vs. 54% for APC (p = 0.017).