Aging-related diseases such as cancer can be traced to the accumulation of molecular
disorder including increased DNA mutations and epigenetic drift. We provide a
comprehensive review of recent results in mice and humans on modifications of DNA
methylation and histone variants during aging and in cancer. Accumulated errors in DNA
methylation maintenance lead to global decreases in DNA methylation with relaxed
repression of repeated DNA and focal hypermethylation blocking the expression of tumor …