Epigenetic cancer drivers represent a widely unexplored territory with a high potential for finding theranostic targets. Horie and colleagues combined the powers of promoter resolution Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) data from the FANTOM5 consortium with RNA-seq and DNA-methylation data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project and reported a number of epigenetically regulated genes in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); such genes may complement the known mutational drivers. The data also demonstrate that multiple DNA repeats of the REP522 family are epigenetically activated in NSCLC cells and act as promoters for cancer-specific lncRNAs such as RP1-90G24.10, AL022344.4, and PCAT7.

Synonymous mutations do not change a protein sequence but can have wide-ranging effects on protein expression, and evidence indicates that synonymous mutations are enriched in tumors. However, previous studies have generally failed to determine whether these mutations have functional effects. In the current Rapid Impact, Bhagavatula and colleagues develop...

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