title: The epigenetics of testicular germ cell tumors: looking for novel disease biomarkers.
abstract: Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT) are a group of heterogeneous, biologically diverse and clinically challenging neoplasms. Despite the relatively low incidence and mortality rates, a subgroup of patients with disseminated disease relapse after conventional therapy and have a dismal prognosis. Moreover, TGCT afflict mostly young men and have therapeutic peculiarities, with some patients showing resistance to cisplatin-based treatments and others being troubled by irreversible side effects, such as infertility. Most TGCT share a common tumorigenic pathway and are cytogenetically similar, making room for Epigenetics to explain its heterogeneity at pathological and clinical level. In this review, we summarize the foremost epigenetic alterations among TGCT focusing on their clinical potential as diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology & Epigenetics Group, Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO Porto), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana Laura
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology & Epigenetics Group, Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Master in Oncology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar - University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Porto, Portugal.|Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO Porto), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lobo
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology & Epigenetics Group, Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO Porto), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jerónimo
authors.affiliation: Cancer Biology & Epigenetics Group, Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Master in Oncology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar - University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Porto, Portugal.|Department of Pathology, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO Porto), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henrique
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: DNA methylation; GCNIS; Histone modifications; TGCT; biomarkers; miRNAs; piRNAs