[Research progress on epigenetics of lung cancer]

Epigenetic events, a key driving force in the development of lung cancer, two changes integral to epigenetic transcriptional control are DNA methylation and covalent modification of histone proteins. Aberrant methylation may be the most common mechanism of inactivating cancer-related genes in lung cancer, and histone modification may be closely associated with DNA methylation. It was seemed that epigenetic changes could be of the earliest events observed during cancer development, making them excellent targets for chemoprevention. Understanding the mechanisms involved in epigenetic regulation and how they interact with genetic changes during lung cancer progression could facilitate development of newer, more efficacious, and safer chemopreventive agents.