Methylation patterns of the E-cadherin 5' CpG island are unstable and reflect the dynamic, heterogeneous loss of E-cadherin expression during metastatic progression.

Abstract excerpt

Metastatic progression of most common epithelial tumors involves a heterogeneous, transient loss of expression of the homotypic cell adhesion protein, E-cadherin, rather than the uniform loss of a functional protein resulting from coding region mutation. Indeed, whereas E-cadherin loss may promote invasion, reexpression may facilitate cell survival within metastatic deposits. The mechanisms underlying such...

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