Epigenetics in Cancer Prevention: Early Detection and Risk Assessment Workshop
Mission: The goal of the Workshop is to evaluate the state of science and determine the future research needs to stimulate research on implications of epigenetics in early detection, risk assessment and prevention of cancer. The objectives of the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following:
- define epigenetic changes - terminology
- development of technology for high-throughput assays
- epigenetic mechanisms in cancer
- epigenetic changes: clinical correlates
||Charges to Participants
||Significance of the Topic
||Basic mechanisms underlined in alterations of DNA methylation in cancer
||Epigenetic variation in normal and neoplastic tissues - implications for risk assessment and disease prevention
||Chromatin and cancer epigenome
||Methylation specific PCR in early cancer detection
||Technology advancement in epigenetics and cancer
||A challenge of early detection of primary brain tumors: where to start?
||Gastric carcinogenesis associated with Helicobacter pylori involves loss of clooxygenase-2 promoter methylation
|2:00 - 5:00 pm||Sessions I - IV
||Define epigenetic changes - terminology
||Epigenetic mechanisms in cancer
||Development of technology for high-throughput assays
||Epigenetic changes: clinical correlates
- How can we use our knowledge of epigenetics for early cancer detection and risk assessment?
- What are the mechanisms of acetylation and methylation regulation?
- Is DNA methylation an initiating event in gene silencing or consolidating mechanism that comes into play once a gene has become inactive through other mechanisms?
- What is the role of pericentric hypermethylation and translocation (protection against viruses and transposable elements) in epigenetics?
- What is the role of non-CpG methylation in mammalian cells?
- How are cell-type specific DNA methylation patterns established and maintained?
- What are the factors that provide stability to the maintenance enzymes of acetylation and methylation?
- Are epigenetic changes inherited? What are the mechanisms?
- Are there other mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of gene expression?
||Session I: Defining epigenetic changes - terminology
|Chair: Peter Jones
Co-Chair: Jean-Pierre Issa
Moderator: Waldemer Debinsky
The objective of this session is to define the terminology used in epigenetics and to
come to a consensus for future definitions. There exists a concern about the hereditary
aspects of gene regulation mediated by methylation and/or acetylation.
- Genomic imprinting and epigenetics
- Epigenetics and X-chromosome
- Epimutations and epimutagens
- Chromatin modeling and epigenetics
||Session II: Epigenetic mechanisms in cancer
|Chair: David Sidransky
Co-Chair: Benjamin Tycko
Moderator: Max Costa
The objective of this session is to identify and prioritize research in the -epigenetics area
and understand the mechanisms involved. Exogenous factors such as radiation, smoke,
free reactive oxygen, free radicals (nickel, arsenic, cadmium etc.) and endogenous
factors such as stress and hormones affect gene regulation via epigenetics.
- Genomic imprinting and disease susceptibility
- Cancer-associated infectious agents and epigenetics
- Pericentric hypermethylation and translocation
- Demethylase/deacetylase and methylase/acetylase transferase regulation
- DNA repair mechanisms and epigenetics
- DNA methylation in mitochondria
||Session III: Development of technology for high-throughput assays
Chair: Stephen B Baylin
Co-Chair: Tim Huang
Moderator: Peter Laird
Although the field of epigenetics is growing rapidly, technological advancement in
quantitation of methylation and high-throughput assays has yet to be developed. The
objective of this session is to discuss cutting edge technology in the epigenetics field.
- Methylation-specific PCR
- Sensitivity of current technologies
- Methylation sensitive RDA (Representational Difference Analysis)
- Technology in RNA methylation
- Public database of methylated genes
||Session IV: Epigenetic changes: clinical correlates
Chair: James Herman
Co-Chair: Timothy Bestor
Moderator: Keith Wilson
Application of epigenetics in early cancer detection and risk assessment is the major
focus of this workshop. The focus of this session will be on clinical correlates and
epigenetics as they exist today and as they should exist in future.
- Implication of epigenetics in clinical studies: hereditable vs. sporadic
(breast/ovarian cancer, HNPCC)
- Colon, lung, gastric, breast, esophageal, prostate cancer and epigenetics: examples
- Epidemiology and epigenetics
- Gene therapy and methylation of retroviral vectors
||Keynote Address: How DNA methylation impacts mammalian epigenetics and cancer
||Cancer genomics and epigenetics
||Prevention wrap-up: perspectives and prospectus. Andrew Feinberg
||Reports and Recommendations: Session I
Reports and Recommendations: Session II
Reports and Recommendations: Session III
Reports and Recommendations: Session IV
Discussion on publication of the workshop proceedings
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