| Theme |
Recent advance in diagnosis and management of colorectal tumors associated with inflammatory bowel disease |
| Title |
DNA methylation as promising new biomarker for ulcerative colitis-associated cancer |
| Author |
Tomomitsu Tahara |
Department of Gastroenterology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Ichiro Hirata |
Department of Gastroenterology, National Federation of Health Insurance Societies Osaka-Central Hospital |
| Author |
Tomoyuki Shibata |
Department of Gastroenterology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Naoki Ohmiya |
Department of Gastroenterology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine |
| [ Summary ] |
DNA methylation has been deeply involved in the development and progression of digestive system cancer. Aberrant DNA methylation has also often been observed in aged and inflammatory digestive tissues such as ulcerative colitis (UC). Accelerated age-related DNA methylation has been observed in the colonic mucosa in UC patients with neoplasia, suggesting that DNA methylation would be an important initial mechanism of UC-related tumorigenesis. Since DNA methylation can be detected in precancerous tissue, it could potentially be useful as a marker for risk estimation of cancer development. Moreover, identifying specific pathways of methylated genes in UC-related tumorigenesis raises the possibility that specific epigenetic therapies could be useful in the treatment or chemoprevention of UCrelated colorectal cancer. |