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A saltationist theory of cancer evolution

A new study based on single-nucleus sequencing reports that triple-negative breast cancers acquire copy number aberrations in short punctuated bursts in the earliest stages of tumor evolution, rather than continuously and gradually, challenging prevailing models of tumor evolution.

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Figure 1: Two models of tumor evolution.

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Correspondence to Florian Markowetz.

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Markowetz, F. A saltationist theory of cancer evolution. Nat Genet 48, 1102–1103 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3687

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