'Drawing' a Molecular Portrait of CIN and Cervical Cancer: a Review of Genome-Wide Molecular Profiling Data.

In this review we summarize the results of studies employing high-throughput methods of profiling of HPV-associated cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and squamous cell cervical cancers at key intracellular regulatory levels to demonstrate the unique identity of the landscape of molecular changes underlying this oncopathology, and to show how these changes are related to the 'natural history' of cervical cancer progression and the formation of clinically significant properties of tumors. A step-wise character of cervical cancer progression is a morphologically well-described fact and, as evidenced by genome-wide screenings, it is indeed the consistent change of the molecular profiles of HPV-infected epithelial cells through which they progressively acquire the phenotypic hallmarks of cancerous cells. In this sense, CIN/cervical cancer is a unique model for studying the driving forces and mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Recent research has allowed definition of the whole-genome spectrum of both random and regular molecular alterations, as well as changes either common to processes of carcinogenesis or specific for cervical cancer. Despite the existence of questions that are still to be investigated, these findings are of great value for the future development of approaches for the diagnostics and treatment of cervical neoplasms.