Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism used to control gene expression. To understand the correlation between this epigenetic mechanism and cancer, single nucleotide polymorphism from the human genomic matrix are analyzed using R Studio software. Data from the Cancer Genome Atlas was examined using alumina 27K methylation chip. A t-test was conducted for each SNP to find the p-value along with the false discovery rate to identify SNP differentially methylated in lung tumor tissue. The final chart analysis revealed that the SNPs are differentially methylated which is also present in cancer tissues for the HCK and TERT gene. The chart analysis revealed a correlation between specific chromosomes of DNA and methylation patterns. In the future, we are interested to see if differences in methylation have a direct correlation to differences in gene expression. Understanding these correlations not only provides insight into cancer development but a means to understand the evolution of epigenetic mechanisms and their effect on gene expression.
