Polyploid giant cancer cells

The total chromosome number of most of our somatic cells has to be faithfully maintained. Either gain or loss of chromosome leading to a sum that is not an exact multiple of the haploid number would result in aneuploidy; and is catastrophic to normal cell which could eventually drive carcinogenesis and cancer development. For years, it has been well-known that DNA aneuploidy is one of the characteristics of malignant tumors. Surprisingly, although polyploid cells (cells having one or more extra sets of chromosomes) were first described nearly two centuries ago, their ability to proliferate has only been reported recently. Polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs), as a subset of cells among the tumor cell populations, can arise in response to therapy-induced stress. Upon stress cessation, PGCCs could eventually generate more aggressive progeny that repopulate the tumor, resembling the properties of cancer stem cells. It is hoped that advancing our knowledge in this area could help to identify the vulnerabilities of PGCCs to improve the therapeutic efficacy. In this collection, we welcome original articles focusing on polyploid giant cancer cell research.