title: Classification of Colon Cancer Patients Based on the Methylation Patterns of Promoters.
abstract: Diverse somatic mutations have been reported to serve as cancer drivers. Recently, it has also been reported that epigenetic regulation is closely related to cancer development. However, the effect of epigenetic changes on cancer is still elusive. In this study, we analyzed DNA methylation data on colon cancer taken from The Caner Genome Atlas. We found that several promoters were significantly hypermethylated in colon cancer patients. Through clustering analysis of differentially methylated DNA regions, we were able to define subgroups of patients and observed clinical features associated with each subgroup. In addition, we analyzed the functional ontology of aberrantly methylated genes and identified the G-protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway as one of the major pathways affected epigenetically. In conclusion, our analysis shows the possibility of characterizing the clinical features of colon cancer subgroups based on DNA methylation patterns and provides lists of important genes and pathways possibly involved in colon cancer development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Wonyoung
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Jungwoo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Science & Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin-Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Science & Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Da-Won
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated OMICS for Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.; Department of Biochemistry, College of Life Science & Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Joon
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: CpG islands; DNA methylation; colon neoplasm; epigenomics