title: Cell-to-cell fusion as a link between viruses and cancer.
abstract: The ability to fuse cells is shared by many viruses, including common human pathogens and several endogenous viruses. Here we will discuss how cell fusion can link viruses to cancer, what types of cancers it can affect, how the existence of this link can be tested and how the hypotheses that we propose might affect the search for human oncogenic viruses. In particular, we will focus on the ability of cell fusion that is caused by viruses to induce chromosomal instability, a common affliction of cancer cells that has been thought to underlie the malignant properties of cancerous tumours.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois 60064, USA. lazebnik@cshl.edu
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Duelli
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lazebnik
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D043171:Chromosomal Instability; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D015726:Giant Cells / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008561:Membrane Fusion; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D009858:Oncogenic Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D053586:Virus Internalization