Background/Aim: Ras-related associated with diabetes (RRAD), a member of the Ras-related GTPase superfamily, is frequently methylated in several human cancers, though its methylation profile remains unclear in esophageal cancer.

We examined RRAD promoter hypermethylation using real-time quantitative methylation-specific PCR in 229 primary human esophageal tissues of contrasting histological types.

RRAD hypermethylation showed highly discriminative receiver-operator characteristic curve profiles, clearly distinguishing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) from esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) or normal esophagus (NE) (p<0.01 and p<0.01, respectively). RRAD normalized methylation values were significantly higher in ESCC (0.0242) than in NE (0.0057, p<0.05) or EAC (0.0139, p<0.01). RRAD hypermethylation frequency was also significantly higher in ESCC (23.1%) than in NE (0%, p<0.05) or EAC (5.4%, p<0.05).

Promoter hypermethylation of RRAD is a frequent, tissue-specific event in ESCC, and is uncommon in EAC. The aberrant methylation of RRAD may be involved in the pathogenesis of a subset of ESCC, but not in EAC.