['Many cadherins (CDH) are associated with various types of cancer and their genetic and epigenetic alterations might be involved in carcinogenesis.', 'We examined the methylation status of CDH genes in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and corresponding noncancerous liver tissues derived from 47 patients, and evaluated the correlation with clinicopathological parameters.', 'Hypermethylation was detected at a ratio ranging from 0% to 55.3%. In particular, M-cadherin (CDH15) was the most hypermethylated of 7 CDH genes. Patients with methylated M-cadherin had shorter 5-year survival rates than patients with unmethylated M-cadherin (overall survival rates, 67.4% vs. 82.7%; p = 0.0167) when assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate analysis revealed that M-cadherin methylation status was an independent predictor of survival.'] Is frequent promoter methylation of M-cadherin in hepatocellular carcinoma associated with poor prognosis?