ABSTRACT
Classically, the development of cancer in humans has been viewed as a progressive multistep process of transformation of normal cells into malignant cells driven by genetic alterations (Hanahan and Weinberg 2000; Vogelstein and Kinzler 2004). However, a wealth of data in the past decade indicates that an accurate epigenomic landscape is critical for normal cell functioning, with evidence of extensive epigenetic distortion in tumor cells having largely changed the view on cancer as being a solely genetic disease (Jones and Baylin 2007). Currently, cancer is recognized as a disease provoked by a combination of genetic and epigenetic aberrations, and both of these components cooperate and complement each other at every stage of tumor development (Jones and Baylin 2007). The remarkable feature of epigenetic abnormalities, unlike genetic alterations, is their potential reversibility. This capability of reversal has resulted in the emergence of a novel innovative epigenetic approach for the treatment of cancer (Brown and Strathdee 2002; Cortez and Jones 2008; Ellis et al. 2009). However, the timely correction of epigenetic alterations
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 109 5.2 Histone Modiˆcations and Cancer ............................................................... 111
5.2.1 Histone Lysine Acetylation and Cancer ........................................... 111 5.2.2 Histone Lysine Methylation and Cancer ........................................... 112
5.3 Histone Modiˆcations and Tumorigenesis ................................................... 112 5.4 Dietary Modiˆcations of Histone Lysine Acetylation and Methylation
Patterns and Cancer Prevention .................................................................... 114 5.4.1 Dietary HDAC Inhibitors and Cancer Prevention ............................ 114 5.4.2 Dietary Methyl Group Donors and Cancer Prevention .................... 115 5.4.3 Diet and Other Histone Modiˆcations and Cancer Prevention ........ 116
5.5 Conclusions and Remarks ............................................................................. 117 References .............................................................................................................. 117
is a promising avenue not only for cancer treatment but also for prevention of the development of cancer (Kopelovich et al. 2003; Davis and Ross 2007; Yang and Seto 2007).
