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Review

Nature Reviews Cancer 1, 109–117 (1 November 2001) | doi:10.1038/35101065

Chromosome segregation and cancer: cutting through the mystery

Prasad V. Jallepalli & Christoph Lengauer

Mitosis is the most dramatic — and potentially dangerous — event in the cell cycle, as sister chromatids are irreversibly segregated to daughter cells. Defects in the checkpoints that normally maintain the fidelity of this process can lead to chromosomal instability (CIN) and cancer. However, CIN — a driving force of tumorigenesis — could be the cancer cell's ultimate vulnerability. An important goal is to identify novel anticancer compounds that directly target the mitotic errors at the heart of CIN.