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Cancer initiated by genetic alterations of cells are typically permanent and nearly impossible to reverse, this differs from epigenetic cancer because the cancer causing epigenetic aberrations have the capability of being reversed, and the cells being returned to normal function.
Oncogenomics is a sub-field of genomics that characterizes cancer-associated genes.It focuses on genomic, epigenomic and transcript alterations in cancer. Cancer is a genetic disease caused by accumulation of DNA mutations and epigenetic alterations leading to unrestrained cell proliferation and neoplasm formation.
The somatic mutations and epigenetic alterations caused by DNA damage and deficiencies in DNA repair accumulate in field defects. Field defects are normal-appearing tissues with multiple alterations (discussed in the section below), and are common precursors to development of the disordered and over-proliferating clone of tissue in a cancer.
The state of a cell may be changed epigenetically, in addition to genetic alterations. The best-understood epigenetic alterations in tumors are the silencing or expression of genes by changes in the methylation of CG pairs of nucleotides in the promoter regions of the genes. These methylation patterns are copied to the new chromosomes when ...
Epigenetic mechanisms. In biology, epigenetics is the study of heritable traits, or a stable change of cell function, that happen without changes to the DNA sequence. [1] The Greek prefix epi-(ἐπι-"over, outside of, around") in epigenetics implies features that are "on top of" or "in addition to" the traditional (DNA sequence based) genetic mechanism of inheritance. [2]
In cancer cells where one part of the interaction experiences a loss-of-function mutation, the other part can be interrupted by drug treatment to induce cell death in cancerous cells. Synthetic lethality is an attractive treatment option in patients with cancer since it there should be minimal / no effect on healthy cells.
A panel of epigenetic methylation marker has been explored for prognosis of ovarian cancer, and it is reported that the panel exhibited high specificity and sensitivity (both above 70%) as a screen marker. [5] Epigenetic markers have also shown promising potential as prognostic markers for bladder cancer. [6]
While epigenetic alterations are found in cancers, the epigenetic alterations in DNA repair genes, causing reduced expression of DNA repair proteins, may be of particular importance. Such alterations may occur early in progression to cancer and are a possible cause of the genetic instability characteristic of cancers. [105] [106] [107]