The Genetic-Epigenetic Interplay in Cancer.
- 1. Division of Oncology and Molecular Biology, Cancer Research Institute, Japan
Absract
Genetic and epigenetic alterations have important implications inhuman cancer. Genetic aberrations are associated with wide spread variations in deregulation of cellular functions that lead to cancer. However, there has been clear evidence that epigenetic alterations have profound influence on malignant progression. The genetic and epigenetic alterations have been long considered as two independent mechanisms and the interplay between the two systems in cancer is poorly understood. In this review, we summarize the molecular links between the genetic and epigenetic events that lead to cancer and discuss the Rb-ATM-DNMT1 nexus as a novel pathway linking genetic aberration of two genes commonly inactivated in human cancer into epigenetic events indispensable for tumor evolution