Leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR) is detected as a novel suppressor gene of hepatocellular carcinoma using double-combination array

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the world’s top five causes of cancer-related deaths and treatment options are limited in this type of cancer. In the present study, we attempt to identify the novel suppressor genes of HCC using a double-combination array we designed. Leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR) is one of suppressor genes using this method. We found that 23 of 48 (47.9%) tumor tissues showed promoter hypermethylation of LIFR gene, and the expression level was clearly reduced in tumor tissues (P < 0.0001). The present study suggests that our method is a meaning technique able to detect novel genes and that LIFR gene is a new suppressor gene of HCC.