Fusion in CancerAn Explanatory Model for Aneuploidy，Metastasis Formation， and Drug Resistance癌症融合：一种解释性模型，用于治疗异常，转移形成和药物抗性.pdfVIP

Chapter 2 Fusion in Cancer: An Explanatory Model for Aneuploidy, Metastasis Formation, and Drug Resistance Marieke Mohr, Kurt S. Zaenker, and Thomas Dittmar Abstract Aneuploidy, metastasis formation, and drug resistance are major issues to overcome in most cancers. If there exists common underlying proceedings for the formation of these phenomena is still unknown. The searching and thereby better understanding of causal mechanisms could promote the generation of drugs targeting the ultimate cause of these cancer promoting events. The merging of a cancer cell with another cancer cell or normal cell could be one explanation how cancer cells could gain advantageous properties and escape eliminating cell fates thereby foster cancer progression. This chapter summarizes how cell–cell fusion could directly be involved in the pathogenesis of cancer and which often cancer associ- ated mechanisms, like viral infections or chronic infl ammation, are hitherto proposed to trigger cell fusion in cancer context. Key words Cell fusion, Cancer, Infl ammation, Aneuploidy, Metastasis, Drug resistance, Hybrid cells 1 Introduction Cell fusion is a common biological phenomenon, involved in various processes like fertilization, placentation, osteoclast forma- tion, tissue regeneration, and wound healing [1–5]. The incorpo- ration of additional nuclei while merging of two or more cells serves mainly to provide benefi cial cell functions and to expand tissue size [1, 2, 6]. But the fusion of cells can also be utilized in the evolution of malignancies, like infection of enveloped viruses to h