Abstract
In contrast to normal cells, aneuploidy — alterations in the number of chromosomes — is consistently observed in virtually all cancers. A growing body of evidence suggests that aneuploidy is often caused by a particular type of genetic instability, called chromosomal instability, which may reflect defects in mitotic segregation in cancer cells. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms leading to aneuploidy holds promise for the development of cancer drugs that target this process.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the members of our laboratory for critical reading of this manuscript. We also thank D. Gisselsson and M. Höglund for sharing some of their unpublished thoughts on mitotic disturbances, and M. R. Speicher for providing the photograph for Fig. 1. We especially thank S. Kern and D. A. Dezentje for permission to report unpublished data.
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Rajagopalan, H., Lengauer, C. Aneuploidy and cancer. Nature 432, 338–341 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03099
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03099
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