Surplus chromosomes may fuel tumor growth in some cancers
WASHINGTON — Some cancers are addicted to having extra chromosomes, a study in mice suggests. Cells usually have just two copies of each chromosome — one inherited from mom and one from dad. But about 90 percent of cancer cells have additional chromosomes, a condition called aneuploidy. Certain types of cancer cells often carry a third copy of a particular chromosome or part of a chromosome. For instance, more than half of colorectal tumors have a surplus chromosome 13, and more than 40 percent carry an extra chromosome 7 or the long arm of chromosome 8 (SN: 5/31/18). Stocking spare copies of chromosomes has been associated with poorer outcomes for patients compared with patients whose cancers have the usual two copies. It turns out that those extra doses of genetic material are necessary for the cancer cells to keep growing, cancer geneticist Jason Sheltzer reported December 11 at the joint annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology and the European Molecular...