text: Twenty-two DNA repair genes with hypermethylated promoters, and reduced or absent expression, were found to occur among 17 types of cancer, as listed in two review articles.  Promoter hypermethylation of MGMT occurs frequently in a number of cancers including 93% of bladder cancers, 88% of stomach cancers, 74% of thyroid cancers, 40%-90% of colorectal cancers and 50% of brain cancers.  That review also indicated promoter hypermethylation of LIG4, NEIL1, ATM, MLH1 or FANCB occurs at frequencies between 33% and 82% in one or more of head and neck cancers, non-small-cell lung cancers or non-small-cell lung cancer squamous cell carcinomas.  The article Epigenetic inactivation of the premature aging Werner syndrome gene in human cancer indicates the DNA repair gene WRN has a promoter that is frequently hypermethylated in a number of cancers, with hypermethylation occurring in 11% to 38% of colorectal, head and neck, stomach, prostate, breast, thyroid, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, chondrosarcoma and osteosarcoma cancers (see WRN).