Aneuploidy-cancer predisposition syndromes: a new link between the mitotic spindle checkpoint and cancer

Genetic cancer predisposition syndromes have been crucial to the identification of genes and pathways involved in carcinogenesis. Constitutional gene mutations segregating with distinctive cancer phenotypes provide unequivocal evidence of a gene's causal role in cancer. This type of evidence has been central in proving that oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes can cause human cancers, but has been lacking for genes implicated in generating aneuploidy. However, recently we identified mutations in the mitotic checkpoint gene BUB1B in an autosomal recessive condition characterized by mosaic aneuploidies and childhood cancers. This finding strongly suggests that aneuploidy is causally related to cancer development.