Aberrant methylation evidence in human cancer

MethCancer DB collects data in the emerging field of aberrant CpG (Cytosine-Guanine dinucleotide)methylation in human tumors. Early detection, classification and prognosis of human cancers by analysis of CpG methylation status carry huge diagnostic potential. However, the abundant experimental evidence is scattered throughout the literature and therefore hardly accessible. MehtCancer DB provides gene-centered information that can be searched, browsed and downloaded. Links to Pubmed and CGAP- (Cancer Genome Anatomy Project)Gene Info are provided. For each gene the corresponding CpG islands within +/- 10kb are located and linked to their genomic context. A pipeline is implemented that automatically annotates new submissions to MethCancerDB. Two pioneering databases of this research field, namely MethDB and MethPrimerDB, are integrated into MethCancerDB. With 4720 entries from 348 sources in the first release, MethCancerDB is a starting point for a comprehensive review of DNA methylation in human malignancies. The database should facilitate the design of directed assays that increase the speed and impact of DNA methylation to clinical decision making. MethCancerDB is available at http://www.methcancerdb.net