Methylome Data in Lethal Prostate Cancer Supports Personalized Medicine

Recent surprising evidence has shown that metastatic tumors usually do not vary in their genomes within an individual. Yet, these tumors behave differently at different sites around the body. Does that mean that epigenetic profiling will be too variable to target for cancer treatment? In a word, no. Martin J. Aryee et al., from Johns Hopkins, have published their work in DNA Methylation Alterations Exhibit Intraindividual Stability and Interindividual Heterogeneity in Prostate Cancer Metastases in Science Translational Medicine. They looked at methylation signatures, including total methylation and allele-specific methylation (ASM) in lethal metastatic prostate cancer, among tumors from 24 donors. Methylated DNA was enriched from the genomic DNA using a Methyl-CpG Binding Domain (MBD) -based capture. Their MBD-SNP assay provided … Continue reading →