Role of Genomic Imprinting in Cancer Diagnosis

The current research focus for cancer diagonosis is classical genetics, named "driving genes". However, not all cancer patients have typical genetic alterations, especially at early stage. In the past dacades, accumulating evidences have revealed that more than 80% diseases are closely related to epigenetic changes. The normally silenced copy of imprinted genes are reactivated at early stage of cancers, and finally proceed to copy number variation. This study will screen for a panel of imprinted genes and build quantitative models to assist the diagnosis of multiple cancers.