Super-enhancers comprise of clusters of enhancers that are typically defined by 
the ChIP-seq analysis for active histone marks. Although the biological 
significance of super-enhancers is still controversial, this concept is gaining 
prominence as useful characteristics of genes that play crucial roles in normal 
development and pathogenesis of cancer. In various cancer cells, super-enhancers 
are often associated with genes involved in carcinogenesis. For example, in 
T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the oncogenic transcription factor TAL1 and 
its regulatory partners (GATA3, RUNX1 and MYB) are regulated by super-enhancers; 
these genes are sensitive to transcriptional inhibition, for example, via the 
pharmacological approach using a small-molecule CDK7 inhibitor. This 
preferential inhibition of cancer genes can also be observed for other types of 
cancer. Based on these findings, we recently performed super-enhancer profiling 
combined with gene expression analysis in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, which 
is a genetically complicated hematological malignancy, to identify critical 
genes responsible for the pathogenesis. This review article aims to discuss the 
concept of super-enhancers, their significance in biomedical research, and their 
potential utility in elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of cancer.