Epigenetic signature of breast cancer and its association with gene expression and copy number

Recent advances in multiple whole genome technologies provide unprecedented opportunities to profile epigenomic signatures in cancer cells. Previously we used a human gene promoter tiling microarray platform to identify genome-wide DNA methylation changes in a cell line model of breast cancer metastasis. Interestingly, the clustered nature of epigenetic targets that we identified, along with our concurrent karyotype analyses, have now led us to hypothesize that complex genomic alterations in cancer cells (deletions, translocations and ploidy) may be superimposed over promoter-specific methylation events that are responsible for gene-specific expression changes.

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Andrews J, Kennette W, Pilon J, Hodgson A, Tuck AB, Chambers AF, Rodenhiser DI