Chapter 7: Chromosomal instability and tumor growth

Chapter 6 considered competition dynamics between genetically stable and unstable cells, and examined the conditions that can lead to the selection of genetically unstable cell populations in vivo. Unstable cells, in turn, can accumulate selfish, advantageous mutations, that allow them to undergo uncontrolled clonal expansion, thus forming a tumor. This chapter investigates the effect of genetic instability on tumor formation in more detail, taking into account both the required mutant generation and the clonal expansion of the mutated cell population…