Therapy resistance remains the most challenging obstacle in cancer treatment. Substantial efforts and evidences have accumulated over decades suggesting not only genetic but non-genomic mechanisms underlying this adaptation of tumor cells. Alterations in epigenome can have a fundamental effect on cellular functions and response to stresses like anticancer therapy. This chapter discusses the principal mechanisms by which epigenetic modifications in the genome and transcriptome aid tumor cells toward acquisition of resistance to chemotherapy.
Keywords: Cancer; Chemoresistance; Chromatin remodeling; DNA methylation; Epigenetic modification; HDAC; Histone methylation; Histone ubiquitination; lncRNA; miRNA.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.