This systematic review aims to summarize epigenome-wide studies on aberrant DNA methylation and its association with survival in patients with gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma. The 15 studies identified showed a large variety of methodological approaches for the identification of prognostic epigenetic markers from genome-wide methylation analyses. None of the findings were reported by more than one study in this systematic review. Further validation studies, a better reporting of methods and results are needed, as well as a clearer definition of investigated outcomes. At present, no conclusions can be drawn on the clinical relevance of the reported epigenetic markers.
Keywords: Biomarker; DNA methylation; Epigenetics; GI adenocarcinoma; Methylation array.
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