Abstract
Hematological malignancies comprise a diverse set of lymphoid and myeloid neoplasms in which normal hematopoiesis has gone awry and together account for ~10% of all new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States in 2016. Recent intensive genomic sequencing of hematopoietic malignancies has identified recurrent mutations in genes that encode regulators of chromatin structure and function, highlighting the central role that aberrant epigenetic regulation plays in the pathogenesis of these neoplasms. Deciphering the molecular mechanisms for how alterations in epigenetic modifiers, specifically histone and DNA methylases and demethylases, drive hematopoietic cancer could provide new avenues for developing novel targeted epigenetic therapies for treating hematological malignancies. Just as past studies of blood cancers led to pioneering discoveries relevant to other cancers, determining the contribution of epigenetic modifiers in hematologic cancers could also have a broader impact on our understanding of the pathogenesis of solid tumors in which these factors are mutated.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2021-2041 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Genes and Development |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 18 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 15 2016 |
Funding
We are grateful to Dr. E. Smith, Dr. A. Behdad, Dr. A. Piunti, and Dr. P. Ntziachristos for helpful discussions, critical reading of this manuscript, and valuable comments. We also thank M. Miller for preparation of the figures, and L. Shilatifard for editorial assistance. We apologize to colleagues whose studies were not cited in this review due to space limitations. Studies in the Shilatifard laboratory are supported by the National Institutes of Health (R35CA197569).
Keywords
- Chromatin
- Epigenetics
- Hematopoiesis
- Histone
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Genetics
- Developmental Biology
