Heritable methylation marks associated with prostate and breast cancer risk

Abstract

Abstract While most epigenetic marks are reprogrammed during early embryogenesis, some studies have reported Mendelian-like inheritance of germline DNA methylation in particular in cancer susceptibility genes. For instance, individuals with MLH1 silenced throughout the soma fit the clinical criteria for hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer that is indistinguishable from the syndrome resulting from germline mutations in MLH1. Research using multiple-case breast cancer families has shown that LINE-1 and Sat2 DNA methylation levels are lower in individuals with a strong family history. Family clustering of cancer could therefore be due to epigenetic as well as genetic and sh..