Elsheikh SE, Green AR, Rakha EA et al.
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
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Editor’s note: Recently, more and more attention has focused on not only the gross genetic differences associated with specific subclasses of breast cancer, but also the more subtle epigenetic variations. Histone modifications demarcate chromatin regions for transcriptional activation or repression and the enzymes behind these alterations (methylases and acetylases) are not exempt from transformation. For example, loss of acetylation and trimethylation of histone H4 is associated with a wide range of neoplasia resulting in some loss of transcriptional control. These global histone modifications have been shown to be predictive of clinical outcome in prostate, lung, and gastric cancers. The current authors were keen to investigate whether there are similar patterns in breast cancers by focusing on the relationship between modified histones and clinicopathological/prognostic data.