SEPT9 ccfDNA methylation further allowed for an accurate pre- and post-therapeutic detection of distant metastases (AUC<sub>pre-therapeutic</sub> = 0.79 (95%CI 0.69-0.89), AUC<sub>post-therapeutic</sub> = 0.93 (95% CI 0.79-1.0)).
The plasma levels of septin-9 and clusterin in ovarian cancer patients were abnormally elevated, which might be used as potential candidates of peripheral blood tumor biomarkers for early diagnosis of EOC and septin-9 might be related to distal metastases of EOC.
Methylation levels of SEPT9 were stage-dependent and showed a stepwise increase in UICC stages (I-IV), primary tumor categories (T1-T4), regional node categories (N0-N2), and distant metastasis categories (M0-M1).
These findings suggest that a mechanism of Septin-9-induced aberrant cancer cell migration is through cytoskeletal regulation and FA modulation, and encourages the use of SEPT9 as novel therapeutic target in the prevention of tumor metastasis.