Cancer mortality has just surpassed cardiovascular disease for the first time ever and one in two men, and one in three women, will be diagnosed with some form of the disease in the US, according to the NIH. Cancer is a complex pathology involving multiple cellular and molecular alterations that trigger its origin and progression. In the last decade, researchers have sought to simplify the problem by providing a common framework to organize research efforts.
The main output of this process was the definition of the 14 Hallmarks of Cancer, a common set of abnormalities that are common to all tumors. Among these hallmarks are the generation of metastases, the exacerbated growth of cells or the inability to die of the transformed cells. It was believed that these properties were largely due to genetic causes (i.
e. mutations), but genetics cannot fully explain the changing and evolutionary nature of human tumors nor their ability to acquire the rapid resistance to therapy. There had to be some other mechanisms involved and the epigenetic control of genetic information seemed a good candidate.
An article published in the journal Cancer Discovery describes the epigenetic properties that allow the definition of tumors and confer them their incredible ability to adapt and survive in a hostile microenvironment, preventing the death of cancer cells. The research was led by Dr. Manel Esteller, ICREA Research Professor at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute and Chairman of Ge.