In a paper published last week in the journal Cell, researchers at Harvard Medical School shed light on a potentially critical factor in cancer development: the massive genomic abnormalities long observed in cancer cells.
The extensive gene additions and deletions present in tumors have puzzled scientists for decades, but amid the seeming chaos, the scientists—led by Stephen Elledge, Mendel professor of genetics and of medicine—found consistent patterns of change: some genes and chromosomes are frequently missing or duplicated in cancer cells, and the new study suggests that these changes contribute directly to cancer’s development.
Read the full, original story here: Shaping the Cancer Genome