Cancer Epigenetics | Community Health

Cancer epigenetics is a rapidly evolving field that explores the epigenetic modifications to the DNA of cancer cells, which do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence but instead affect the way the genetic code is expressed. Epigenetic mechanisms play a crucial role in maintaining normal tissue-specific gene expression and are essential for normal development. The disturbance of epigenetic processes in cancers can lead to a loss of expression of genes, which occurs about 10 times more frequently by transcription silencing than by mutations. According to [[vogelstein-et-al|Vogelstein et al.]], in colorectal cancer, there are usually about 3 to 6 driver mutations and 33 to 66 hitchhiker or passenger mutations. However, in colon tumors compared to adjacent normal-appearing colonic mucosa, there are about 600 to 800 heavily methylated CpG islands. The study of cancer epigenetics has significant implications for our understanding of cancer development and progression, and may lead to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Researchers at institutions such as the [[national-cancer-institute|National Cancer Institute]] and the [[american-cancer-society|American Cancer Society]] are actively investigating the role of epigenetics in cancer, and companies like [[illumina|Illumina]] are developing new technologies to study epigenetic modifications.