Elevated tolerance to aneuploidy in cancer cells: estimating the fitness effects of chromosome number alterations by in silico modelling of somatic genome evolution.
An unbalanced chromosome number (aneuploidy) is present in most malignant tumours and has been attributed to mitotic mis-segregation of chromosomes. However, recent studies have shown a relatively high rate of chromosomal mis-segregation also in non-neoplastic human cells, while the frequency of aneuploid cells remains low throughout life in most normal tissues. This implies that newly formed aneu