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Epigenetics in esophageal cancers

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Abstract

Esophageal cancers are a challenging upper gastrointestinal tract tumor entity for interdisciplinary oncology. For the two main histotypes, namely esophageal squamous cell carcinomas and Barrett’s adenocarcinomas, several genetic aberrations have been shown to contribute to carcinogenesis and progression as well as to represent potential novel targets for therapeutic intervention. This is paralleled by growing insight into epigenetic alterations of esophageal cancers. Studies involving the analyses of human tissue specimens predominantly describe altered patterns of miRNA expression, DNA methylation patterns, and histone marks levels. This review provides a critical update on this increasing knowledge of epigenetic alteration in esophageal cancers by specifically focusing on the translational aspects of epigenetic analyses from human tissue specimens.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany

    Theresa D. Ahrens, Martin Werner & Silke Lassmann

  2. Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Theresa D. Ahrens

  3. Comprehensive Cancer Center Freiburg, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany

    Martin Werner & Silke Lassmann

  4. German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

    Martin Werner & Silke Lassmann

  5. BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Silke Lassmann

  6. Department für Pathologie, Institut für Klinische Pathologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Breisacherstrasse 115A, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Silke Lassmann

Authors
  1. Theresa D. Ahrens
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  2. Martin Werner
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  3. Silke Lassmann
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Correspondence to Silke Lassmann.

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Ahrens, T.D., Werner, M. & Lassmann, S. Epigenetics in esophageal cancers. Cell Tissue Res 356, 643–655 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-014-1876-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-014-1876-y

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