Epigenetics and Chromosome

Cancer Epigenetics & Oncology

    Epigenetic modifications of the Cancer cell genome, which does not bring a change in the nucleotide sequence, is called Cancer Epigenetics.

     Cancer was the first human disease to be linked to epigenetics.  DNA hypomethylation can activate oncogenes and initiate chromosome instability, whereas DNA hypermethylationinitiates silencing of tumor suppressor genes. An accumulation of epigenetic & genetic errors can transform a normal cell into an invasive or metastatic tumor cell. DNA methylation patterns may cause abnormal expression of cancer-associated genes. Global histone modification patterns are also found to correlate with cancers such as breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancer.

      Epigenetic modification are as important as genetic mutations in a cell's transformation to cancer, and their manipulation holds great promise for cancer prevention, detection, and therapy.

     During the cell transformation to a cancerous cell, Epigenetic modifications are also crucial like genetic mutations. Their modification brings a great promising approach for prevention, detection, and therapy of Cancer.