Epigenetic patterns in a cell control the expression of genes and consequently determine the phenotype of a cell. Cancer cells possess altered epigenomes which include aberrant patterns of DNA methylation, histone tail modifications, nucleosome positioning and of the three-dimensional chromatin organization within a nucleus. These altered epigenetic patterns are potential useful biomarkers to detect cancer cells and to classify tumor types. In addition, the cancer epigenome dictates the response of a cancer cell to therapeutic intervention and, therefore its knowledge, will allow to predict response to different therapeutic approaches. Here we review the current state-of-the-art technologies that have been developed to decipher epigenetic patterns on the genomic level and discuss how these methods are potentially useful for precision oncology.

细胞中的表观遗传模式控制基因的表达，从而决定细胞的表型。癌细胞具有改变的表观基因组，包括 DNA 甲基化、组蛋白尾部修饰、核小体定位和细胞核内三维染色质组织的异常模式。这些改变的表观遗传模式是检测癌细胞和分类肿瘤类型的潜在有用的生物标志物。此外，癌症表观基因组决定了癌细胞对治疗干预的反应，因此它的知识将允许预测对不同治疗方法的反应。在这里，我们回顾了目前为破译基因组水平的表观遗传模式而开发的最先进技术，并讨论这些方法如何潜在地用于精准肿瘤学。