Cancer leaves common fingerprint on DNA

Cancer leaves common fingerprint on DNA

According to the team of researchers, cancers appear to share a telltale signature of widespread changes to the socalled epigenome, irrespective of their their stage or type. In a study, the investigators say they have found widespread and distinctive changes in a broad variety of cancers to chemical marks known as methyl groups attached to DNA, which helps to govern whether the genes are turned ‘on’ or ‘off.’ Such a kind of reversible chemical marks on DNA are called epigenetic. All these changes take place early in the tumor formation and hence enable tumor cells to chnages in their environment and by quickly turning genes on\off.