There are several ways to ruin a tune: play the wrong notes, play them at the wrong time, or with the wrong emphasis. Cancer cells, working from a corrupted score – their genome – manage to do all three.
In cancer, bad instructions meet improper execution. Tumor cells are notorious for alterations of their genome: mutations, misspellings of the genetic code, out-of-place stretches of DNA, missing genes, overabundant genes. But they’re also marked by changes in gene expression – the activity level of individual genes — a process controlled by the cell’s epigenetic machinery.
Instances of epigenetic changes have been found in many forms of cancer. But while scientists know a great deal about how mutations and other errors of the genome occur, the causes of epigenetic alterations in cancer remain cloudy.
In a recent study in the journal Nature, scientists at Dana-Farber describe a mechanism by which such alterations could arise — a process that involves one of the most perilous, harrowing experiences a chromosome can undergo.
