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powabiatch t1_iu14nf6 wrote

Reply to comment by Twatareyousaying in Major breakthrough in cancer research: Papers reveal 'dark matter' that contributes to disease's growth by Ezekiel_W

What’s novel is that the papers attribute cell-to-cell variation within a tumor to a larger degree of epigenetic regulation compared to genetic variation (i.e. mutations) than previously demonstrated. In other words, cells that look and behave different from each other within the same tumor are less so as a product of different mutations, than as a function of their epigenetic “plasticity” - suggesting more than previously shown that cells can readily change their phenotype without necessarily changing their genotype.

Which, some of us already thought so… but these papers use large datasets and brand new technology to measure it more finely than anyone has before.

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lapseofreason t1_iu1yrlq wrote

That's a great explanation - thank you. Since you are appear very knowledgeable, care to speculate on what this increased knowledge might mean on a practical basis if anything ? Cancer survivor here - I take a keen interest in any developments.

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powabiatch t1_iu1zggb wrote

Directly? Probably not much.

But indirectly, it can change the way other researchers approach their projects - by more carefully paying attention to epigenetic marks etc and changing the way they might model their hypotheses. It also has implications about the evolution of drug resistance, metastasis, and more. So I think this will help more researchers appreciate and incorporate non-genomic mechanisms in their thoughts - many already do, of course, but more would be better.

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lapseofreason t1_iu1zunw wrote

Thank you. That is a helpful answer. It feels like the progress in this space is increasing on many fronts and at an increasing pace as well. Which is great

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the_lazykins t1_iu2xmqq wrote

Hi, would you mind explaining an example of a non-genomic tx in this case, even if it’s something hypothetical? Or is that not what you meant?

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powabiatch t1_iu30406 wrote

While there are drugs that target epigenetic regulators (e.g. Ezh2 inhibitors), it’s not clear yet how the new data would take advantage of them (if they can at all). While some of these drugs have shown promise, all of them have some drawbacks because they affect so many genes, often leading to unwanted toxicities. But hopefully this type of new data may help refine when to use which epigenetic drugs in which combinations.

Even so, epigenetic drugs may not always be the best answer to epigenetic dysregulation in cancer cells - remains to be seen though.

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the_lazykins t1_iu30hhn wrote

Oh got it. Thank you, that gives me something to read up on tonight.

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