Background: Promoter hypermethylation in death-associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) gene has been long linked to cervical neoplasia, but the established results remained controversial. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the associations of DAPK1 promoter hypermethylation with low-grade intra-epithelial lesion (HSIL), high-grade intra-epithelial lesion (HSIL), cervical cancer (CC), and clinicopathological features of CC. Methods: Published studies with qualitative methylation data were initially searched from PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases (up to March 2018). Then, quantitative methylation datasets, retrieved from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases, were pooled to validate the results of published studies. Results: In a meta-analysis of 37 published studies, DAPK1 promoter hypermethylation progressively increased the risk of LSIL by 2.41-fold (P = 0.012), HSIL by 7.62-fold (P < 0.001), and CC by 23.17-fold (P < 0.001). Summary receiver operating characteristic curves suggested a potential diagnostic value of DAPK1 promoter hypermethylation in CC, with a large area-under-the-curve of 0.83, a high specificity of 97%, and a moderate sensitivity of 59%. There were significant impacts of DAPK1 promoter hypermethylation on histological type (odds ratio (OR) = 3.53, P < 0.001) and FIGO stage of CC (OR = 2.15, P = 0.003). Then, a pooled analysis of nine TCGA and GEO datasets, covering 13 CPG sites within DAPK1 promoter, identified eight CC-associated sites, six sites with diagnostic values for CC (pooled specificities: 74-90%; pooled sensitivities: 70-81%), nine loci associated with the histological type of CC, and all 13 loci with down-regulated effects on DAPK1 mRNA expression. Conclusion: The meta-analysis suggests that DAPK1 promoter hypermethylation is significantly associated with the disease severity of cervical neoplasia. DAPK1 methylation detection exhibits a promising ability to discriminate CC from cancer-free controls.

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