ABSTRACT
Suppressor Genes ...................................................................................................... 86 6.4 Epigenetic Plasticity and Cancer Progression ..................................................................... 86 6.5 Spreading of Aberrant Methylation in Cancer Progression................................................. 87 6.6 Metastasis and DNA Methylation........................................................................................ 87 6.7 Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Progression............................................................. 88 6.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 89 References ....................................................................................................................................... 89
Historically, cancer has been regarded as a genetic disease characterized by mutations or loss of heterozygosity. However, an accumulating body of evidence suggests that cancer is also an epigenetic disease and aberrant epigenetic gene silencing or derepression is thought to play a major role in cancer initiation, progression, and even metastasis. Among many epigenetic phenomena that can alter gene expression through heritable noncoding changes, DNA methylation has been most extensively investigated in cancer.
