Detection Methods for Epigenetic Mechanisms in Breast Cancer

Epigenetic dysregulation of gene expression is central to breast cancer initiation, progression, and treatment response. These alterations include histone modifications, DNA methylation, and expression of noncoding RNA. Technological advancements have improved our ability to identify histone modifications, DNA methylation patterns and provided critical insights into the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and its role in breast oncogenesis. The epigenetic profiles of healthy and breast cancer tissues revealed several diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. In this article, we review the methodologies commonly used to study tumor-associated histone modifications and DNA methylation changes in breast cancer, highlighting their principles, applications, and advancements, such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), bisulfite conversion of DNA, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq).