MedUnion submitted, created time 10 months 3 weeks (www.mupnet.com)

Metastatic progression is the cause of most cancer decease. Many cell surface adhesion molecules are known to be present or re-expressed following gene promoter CpG island hypomethylation in the early stage of growing tumors, but absent or reduced by gene promoter CpG hypermethylation in metastasized carcinomas. Recent studies have revealed that an adhesion receptor, epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), mediates cell-cell interaction and is involved in tumor invasion and metastasis. EpCAM expression was associated with promoter CpG methylation in lung adenocarcinoma

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