Genetic changes outside nuclear DNA suspected to trigger more than half of all cancers
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 16:21
in Biology & Nature
A buildup of chemical bonds on certain cancer-promoting genes, a process known as hypermethylation, is widely known to render cells cancerous by disrupting biological brakes on runaway growth. Now, Johns Hopkins scientists say the reverse process — demethylation — which wipes off those chemical bonds may also trigger more than half of all cancers.