To characterize DNA methylation-based subgroups in colorectal cancer, we performed genome-scale DNA methylation profiling of 125 colorectal tumor samples and 29 histologically normal-adjacent colonic tissue samples using the Illumina Infinium DNA methylation assay, which assesses the DNA methylation status of 27,578 CpG sites located at the promoter regions of 14,495 protein-coding genes. We identified four DNA methylation-based subgroups of CRC using model-based cluster analyses. Each subtype shows characteristic genetic and clinical features, indicating that they represent biologically distinct subgroups.
Overall design
Bisulfite converted DNA from fresh frozen 125 colorectal tumors and 29 adjacent normal tissues were hybridized to the Illumina Infinium 27k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.2