hMLH1 Promoter Hypermethylation in Microsatellite Instability-Positive Endometrial Carcinoma

The prevailing paradigm of cancer as a genetic disorder, arising from the acquisition and subsequent selection of mutations in cancer-causing genes, has propelled much of cancer research over the past two decades and has expanded our understanding of cancer at a phenomenal pace. Cancer-causing genes have been identified at an ever-increasing rate and fall into three major categories: oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and the more recently described mutator genes. The development of a malignant neoplasm usually involves mutations in one or more genes of each category, resulting in abnormal function of the encoded protein through changes in the level of gene expression (eg, amplification) or in the characteristic of the protein (eg, missense mutation or translocation).