Epigenetics and Cancer Treatment

February 7, 2023

3 min read

Cancer is caused due to both genetic and epigenetic factors. Cancer caused by genetic factors is nearly impossible to reverse, but recent studies have found success in targeting epigenetic events. Below, we’ll discuss what epigenetics is, and how it can be used for cancer treatment.

What is Epigenetics?

Many people have some understanding of what genes are. Genes are information that determines certain physical traits or characteristics and is passed on from our biological ancestors.

Epigenetics is a different story. Epigenetics is the study of how our behaviors and environment make changes that affect our genes. Genetic changes affect our DNA sequence and are irreversible. Epigenetic changes, on the other hand, do not affect our DNA sequence and therefore can be changed.

Rather than actually changing our DNA, it changes how the body reads DNA. It does this by changing the expression of DNA and can switch genes “on” or “off”. The term epigententics means, after all, “above the genes”.

Epigenetics and Cancer

When epigenetic changes go wrong, cancer can develop. There are two main groups of genes with connections to cancer that can result in cancer due to negative epigenetic changes. These two groups are oncogenes and tumor suppression genes. When oncogenes become overactive or tumor suppressor genes are muted or changed, cancer can develop.

Your Behavior and Your Environment

Your diet, smoking, drugs, and not enough exercise, along with environmental factors like exposure to carcinogenic chemicals and radiation can also trigger epigenetic changes.

Epigenetics and Cancer Treatment

Epigenetics has provided a new way to treat cancer. Scientists have developed drugs that target certain enzymes involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Using these epigenetics targets has emerged as an effective alternative to chemotherapy and radiation. Furthermore, unlike radiation and chemotherapy, epigenetic cancer treatment does not kill the cells in your body.

The two main types of drugs that scientists are studying are DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors and histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors. Although these drugs haven’t yet been effective at eliminating solid tumors, they are very promising.

DNMT Inhibitors

DNA methylation controls how active a given gene is. When there is little methylation, genes are “on”, when there is a lot of methylation, genes are “off”. When a person has cancer, their tumor suppressor genes usually have a lot of methylation, causing them to switch “off” and allowing the tumor to grow. Therefore, DNMT inhibitors can turn tumor suppressor genes back on to halt the growth of developing tumors.

There are two kinds of DNMT inhibitors that are available today: Decitabine (Dacogen) and Azacitidine (Vidaza).

However, these two drugs break down relatively quickly (often in less than an hour). Plus, they can suppress your immune system and damage DNA.

Luckily, researchers are exploring a new drug called Zebularine that is said to be more effective, safer, and more stable.

HDAC Inhibitors

Histones are a protein that configures DNA in order to fit in chromosomes. When epigenetic changes go wrong, histones can make DNA unreadable, known as histone deacetylation. When the DNA becomes unreadable it is muted and turns the gene expression off. Scientists believe that a lot of histone deacetylation happens in cancer cells, which is related to DNA repair genes and tumor suppressor genes going silent.

HDAC inhibitors reduce histone deacetylation, which stops tumor suppressor genes from going silent and thereby fights cancer.

There are four HDAC inhibitors being used by doctors:

Belinostat (Beleodaq)
Panobinostat (Farydak)
Romidepsin (Istodax)
Vorinostat (Zolinza)

These treatments may lower blood cell counts and damage bone marrow, in addition to causing side effects. This is most likely because these drugs go after all HDACs, not just the ones involved in the development of cancer.

Epigenetics represent an exciting area of cancer treatment. As an emerging therapeutic, it offers a promising outlook as continued research ensues in this exciting field.

General information, not medical advice

This article can't account for your health history or current treatment. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change anything about your care.

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On this page

What is Epigenetics?

Epigenetics and Cancer

Your Behavior and Your Environment

Epigenetics and Cancer Treatment

DNMT Inhibitors

HDAC Inhibitors

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