DAPK1 and cancer: Hypermethylation of DAPK has been frequently described in many different cancers compared with normal tissues, including esophageal, breast malignancies, head and neck, kidney and bladder, ovary, B cell lymphoma and lung cancer (Sanchez-Cespedes et al., 2000; Lehmann et al., 2002; Brock et al., 2003; Christoph et al., 2006; Collins et al., 2006).