Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. This complex disease still holds severe problems concerning diagnosis due to the high invasiveness nature of colonoscopy and the low accuracy of the alternative diagnostic methods. Additionally, patient heterogeneity even within the same stage is not properly reflected in the current stratification system. This scenario highlight...
Background: Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease resulting in diverse clinical behaviours and therapeutic responses. DNA methylation is a major epigenetic alteration that is commonly perturbed in cancers. The aim of this study is to characterize the relationship between DNA methylation and aberrant gene expression in breast cancer. Methods: We analysed DNA methylation and gene expression profiles fro...
Background: Limitless self-renewal is one of the hallmarks of cancer and is attained by telomere maintenance, essentially through telomerase (hTERT) activation. Transcriptional regulation of hTERT is believed to play a major role in telomerase activation in human cancers. Main body: The dominant interest in telomerase results from its role in cancer. The role of telomeres and telomere maintenance mechanisms is ...
Epigenetic dysregulation is one of many factors that contribute to cancer development and progression. Numerous epigenetic alterations have been identified in urologic cancers including histone modifications, DNA methylation changes, and microRNA expression. Since these changes are reversible, efforts are being made to develop epigenetic drugs that restore the normal epigenetic patterns of cells, and many clini...
The identification of new biomarkers to differentiate between indolent and aggressive prostate tumors is an important unmet need. We examined the role of THOR (TERT Hypermethylated Oncological Region) as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in prostate cancer (PCa).We analyzed THOR in common cancers using genome-wide methylation arrays. Methylation status of the whole TERT gene in benign and malignant prostate...