Epigenetic Regulation of the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Lung Cancer

• Published in: Cancers Vol. 9; no. 7; p. 72
• Main Authors: Roche, Joëlle, Gemmill, Robert M, Drabkin, Harry A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 24.06.2017; MDPI
• Subjects: Cancer; Chemotherapy; chromatin modifications; Cytotoxicity; EMT; Epigenetics; Epitranscriptomics; EZH2; Life Sciences; Lung cancer; Mesenchyme; Metastases; Metastasis; non-coding RNAs; NSCLC; Polycomb group proteins; Review; SCLC; Stem cells; Vegetal Biology; Wound healing; SCLC; Epitranscriptomics; NSCLC; non-coding RNAs; Epigenetics; chromatin modifications; EMT; EZH2
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers9070072

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. It is an aggressive and devastating cancer because of metastasis triggered by enhanced migration and invasion, and resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapy. The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a fundamental developmental process that is reactivated in wound healing and a variety of diseases including cancer where it promotes migration/invasion and metastasis, resistance to treatment, and generation and maintenance of cancer stem cells. The induction of EMT is associated with reprogramming of the epigenome. This review focuses on major mechanisms of epigenetic regulation mainly in lung cancer with recent data on EZH2 (enhancer of zeste 2 polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit ), the catalytic subunit of the PRC2 (Polycomb Group PcG), that behaves as an oncogene in lung cancer associated with gene repression, non-coding RNAs and the epitranscriptome.