DNA Methylation, Aging, and Cancer Risk: A Mini-Review

Larry Chen; Patricia A Ganz; Mary E Sehl

doi:10.3389/fbinf.2022.847629

DNA Methylation, Aging, and Cancer Risk: A Mini-Review

Front Bioinform. 2022 Jun 2:2:847629. doi: 10.3389/fbinf.2022.847629. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Larry Chen¹, Patricia A Ganz^{2

3}, Mary E Sehl^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Computational and Systems Biology Program, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
² Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
³ Department of Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁴ Department of Computational Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

Abstract

Accumulation of somatic mutations and genomic instability are hallmarks of both aging and cancer. Epigenetic alterations occur across cell types and tissues with advancing age. DNA methylation-based estimates of biologic age can predict important age-related outcomes, including risk of frailty and mortality, and most recently have been shown to be associated with risk of developing cancer. In this mini-review, we examine pathways known to exhibit altered methylation in aging tissues, pre-malignant lesions, and tumors and review methodologies of epigenetic clocks that reliably predict cancer risk, including those derived from methylation studies of peripheral blood, as well as those methylation levels from within the tissues at high risk of cancer.

Keywords: DNA methylation; aging; cancer risk; carcinogenesis; epigenetic clocks.

Publication types

Review