Prostate cancer is a multifactorial disease influenced by various molecular features.
Over the past decades, epigenetics, which is the study of changes in gene expression
without altering the DNA sequence, has been recognized as a major driver of this disease.
In the past 50 years, advancements in technological tools to characterize the epigenome
have highlighted crucial roles of epigenetic mechanisms throughout the entire spectrum
of prostate cancer, from initiation to progression, including localized disease, metastatic
dissemination, castration resistance and neuroendocrine transdifferentiation. Substantial
advances in the understanding of epigenetic mechanisms in the pathophysiology of prostate
cancer have been carried out, but translating preclinical achievements into clinical
practice remains challenging. Ongoing research and biomarker-oriented clinical trials
are expected to increase the likelihood of successfully integrating epigenetics into
prostate cancer clinical management.
