DNA co-methylation analysis of lincRNAs across nine cancer types reveals novel potential epigenetic biomarkers in cancer

Aim: The potential functions and prognostic value of lincRNAs with co-methylation events are explored in 9 cancer types. Materials & methods: Here, we evaluated the co-methylation events in promoter and gene-body regions between two lincRNAs across 9 cancer types by constructing a systematic biological framework. Results: The co-methylation events in both promoter and gene-body regions tended to be highly cancer specific. Patient samples could be separated by tumor and normal types according to the eigengenes of universal co-methylation clusters. Functional enrichment results revealed the lincRNAs that brought promoter and gene-body co-methylation events that affected cancer progress through participating in different pathways and could serve as potential prognostic biomarkers. Conclusion: The study provides new insight into the epigenetic regulation in cancer and leads to a potential new direction for epigenetic biomarker discovery.