Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer kills around 35,000 men yearly, and about 220,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer per year, in North America alone. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-caused fatalities in men, and within a man's lifetime, one in six men will have the disease. Alterations in histone acetylation and DNA methylation occur in various genes influencing prostate cancer, and have been seen in genes involved in hormonal response. More than 90% of prostate cancers show gene silencing by CpG island hypermethylation of the GSTP1 gene promoter, which protects prostate cells from genomic damage that is caused by different oxidants or carcinogens. Real-time methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) suggests that many other genes are also hypermethylated. Gene expression in the prostate may be modulated by nutrition and lifestyle changes.