In recent years, epigenetic aberrations have been increasingly recognized as important alternative mechanisms of carcinogenesis and tumor progress in many kinds of human cancers, which lead to loss or downregulation of tumor suppressor genes and upregulation of some tumor promoting genes or oncogenes. The modern definition of epigenetics is information heritable during cell division other than the DNA sequence itself, which affects changes in gene expression during development and includes phenomena such as DNA methylation, histone modification, loss of genomic imprinting, and RNA associated silencing. DNA methylation is a covalent modification of cytosine occurring on so-called CpG islands, which are short CpG-rich regions frequently associated with gene promoter regions. Normally, cytosine methylation of CpG sites within the gene promoter region is involved in the allele-specific inactivation of certain genes, while CpG methylation in the chromosomal centromeric region contributes to chromosomal stability. Histone modification includes posttranscriptional acetylation, methylation, or phosphorylation of histone tails.

We have a particular interest in manuscripts that report relevance of epigenetic aberrance for population screening, early diagnosis, molecular staging, epigenetic therapeutic targets, and treatment outcome or prognosis prediction in gastrointestinal cancer. Reviews that summarize the results of basic, clinical, and in particular translational studies are welcomed. Moreover, manuscripts reporting studies using current high throughput techniques and bioinformatic analysis would be of great interest. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• New methods of epigenetic aberrance detection
• Epigenetic aberrances and cancer stem cells
• Epigenetics and signal transduction
• Epigenetic biomarkers or predictors for population screening, early diagnosis, molecular staging, and prognosis
• Impact of epigenetic aberrance on clinical management of patients with gastrointestinal cancer
• Targeted epigenetic therapy

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