By Annalee Armstrong – Fierce Biotech
Scientists have long known that cancer cells typically have extra chromosomes, but what exactly was the extra genetic material doing?
New research from a team at Yale University has finally provided an answer. Humans typically have 23 pairs of chromosomes in their cells. Having extra is known as aneuploidy. These extra chromosomes are used to boost tumor growth and could be targeted as a new pathway for cancer treatment, according to the study published July 6 in the journal Science.