Kang Ziyu, Wang Junlin, Liu Jiyan, Du Li, Liu Xiaofei
Institute of Chinese Medical Literature and Culture, Shandong University of Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
Department of Pharmacy, Shandong University Second People's Hospital, Jinan, China.
Front Immunol. 2025 Apr 17;16:1584087. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1584087. eCollection 2025.
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most prevalent malignant tumors among women globally, with the number of cases accounting for even more than 1/3 of all tumor patients in women. Recent studies have found that the incidence of BC is increasing every year. Despite the great progress made in BC treatment, the characteristics of BC cells, such as strong immune evasion, easy recurrence and drug resistance, are still the main reasons limiting the survival of BC patients. Epigenetics is becoming an important method to reveal the development of cancer, mainly through the study of DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin structure changes and non-coding RNA. In addition, researchers have found that epigenetic markers have great potential for early detection and personalized treatment of BC. Inhibitors targeting epigenetically modified enzymes are effective in treating a wide range of tumors and provide significant patient survival and quality of life. Therefore, this review will comprehensively summarize the role of epigenetic modifications in BC development. Second, this paper will focus on summarizing how epigenetic modifications induce the formation of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in BC. Targeting the mechanism of action of epigenetic modifications provides new perspectives to unravel the complex process of BC development, while paving the way for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets. In the future, by integrating multi-omics data to enable a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis of BC, we will be able to promote the overall development of precision medicine.
乳腺癌（BC）是全球女性中最常见的恶性肿瘤之一，其病例数甚至占女性所有肿瘤患者的三分之一以上。最近的研究发现，BC的发病率逐年上升。尽管BC治疗取得了巨大进展，但BC细胞的特性，如强大的免疫逃逸、易复发和耐药性，仍然是限制BC患者生存的主要原因。表观遗传学正成为揭示癌症发展的重要方法，主要通过研究DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、染色质结构变化和非编码RNA。此外，研究人员发现表观遗传标记物在BC的早期检测和个性化治疗方面具有巨大潜力。靶向表观遗传修饰酶的抑制剂在治疗多种肿瘤方面有效，并能显著提高患者的生存率和生活质量。因此，本综述将全面总结表观遗传修饰在BC发展中的作用。其次，本文将重点总结表观遗传修饰如何诱导BC中肿瘤免疫微环境（TIME）的形成。靶向表观遗传修饰的作用机制为揭示BC发展的复杂过程提供了新的视角，同时为新型诊断和治疗靶点的开发铺平了道路。未来，通过整合多组学数据以更深入地了解BC的发病机制，我们将能够推动精准医学的全面发展。
