Epigenetic alterations in gastric carcinogenesis

Gastric cancer is believed to result in part from the accumulation of multiple genetic alterations leading to oncogeneoverexpression and tumor suppressor loss. Epigenetic alterations as a distinct and crucial mechanism to silence a varietyof methylated tissue-specific and imprinted genes, have been extensively studied in gastric carcinoma and play impor-tant roles in gastric carcinogenesis. This review will briefly discuss the basic aspects of DNA methylation and CpGisland methylation, in particular the epigenetic alterations of certain critical genes implicated in gastric carcinogenesisand its relevance of clinical implications.