Lung cancer falls into two broad groups based on the size of the cells that make up the tumors: small cell tumors (about 20%) and non-small cell tumors (about 80%).
Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. A common epigenetic phenomenon is methylation, whereby a methyl group (a chemical compound which includes CH3) is added to a portion of a gene (cytosine or adenine). Methylation tends to suppress the expression of the gene.
A new drug, using epigenetic methylation, has been found to be helpful in treating non-small cell lung cancer.
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