{"entity":{"id":"whole-genome-doubling","kind":"term","name":"Whole-genome doubling (WGD)","aka":[],"tldr":"Whole-genome doubling is a single event in which a cancer cell duplicates its entire genome, becoming tetraploid. It happens in about a third of cancers and buffers the chaos that follows.","summary":"Whole-genome doubling (WGD) is a single event in which a cancer cell duplicates its entire genome and becomes tetraploid. It occurs in about a third of tumours, often early and with TP53 loss, and it buffers the chaos that follows: the doubled cell tolerates later chromosome loss and instability, evolves faster and carries a worse prognosis, as described in the Chromosomal instability & aneuploidy and p53 / RB / cell-cycle checkpoint pathways. WGD also creates dependencies on KIF18A and the spindle checkpoint that CIN-directed drugs are beginning to exploit, pursued in the idea Is aneuploidy itself a druggable vulnerability? Readers meet the term under Genome instability and mutation, in the TRACERx 100 and TRACERx 421 papers and in the spindle assembly checkpoint pathway.","asOf":"2026-09-08","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy","links":[{"label":"Bielski et al., Genome doubling shapes the evolution and prognosis of advanced cancers (Nature Genetics 2018)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0165-1"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":["tp53"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":["chromosomal-instability","p53-cell-cycle"],"terms":["genome-instability-mutation"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-bielski-nat-genet"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Cancer biology"},"route":"/terms/whole-genome-doubling/","neighbours":{"target":[{"id":"tp53","kind":"target","name":"TP53","route":"/targets/tp53/"}],"pathway":[{"id":"chromosomal-instability","kind":"pathway","name":"Chromosomal instability & aneuploidy","route":"/pathways/chromosomal-instability/"},{"id":"mitotic-spindle-checkpoint","kind":"pathway","name":"Mitosis & the spindle assembly checkpoint","route":"/pathways/mitotic-spindle-checkpoint/"},{"id":"p53-cell-cycle","kind":"pathway","name":"p53 / RB / cell-cycle checkpoint","route":"/pathways/p53-cell-cycle/"}],"term":[{"id":"aneuploidy-theory-of-cancer","kind":"term","name":"Aneuploidy and chromosomal instability as the cause of cancer","route":"/terms/aneuploidy-theory-of-cancer/"},{"id":"genome-instability-mutation","kind":"term","name":"Enabling characteristic: genome instability and mutation","route":"/terms/genome-instability-mutation/"},{"id":"kras-allelic-imbalance","kind":"term","name":"KRAS allelic imbalance and mutant KRAS dosage in pancreatic cancer","route":"/terms/kras-allelic-imbalance/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-notta-punctuated-evolution-pancreatic-nature-2016","kind":"paper","name":"A renewed model of pancreatic cancer evolution based on genomic rearrangement patterns","route":"/key-papers/paper-notta-punctuated-evolution-pancreatic-nature-2016/"},{"id":"paper-bielski-nat-genet","kind":"paper","name":"Genome doubling shapes the evolution and prognosis of advanced cancers","route":"/key-papers/paper-bielski-nat-genet/"},{"id":"paper-tracerx-evolution-nature-2023","kind":"paper","name":"TRACERx 421: the full-cohort picture of how lung cancer evolves and which subclones drive relapse","route":"/key-papers/paper-tracerx-evolution-nature-2023/"},{"id":"paper-tracerx-100-nejm-2017","kind":"paper","name":"TRACERx first 100: tracking how lung cancers evolve, and how chromosomal chaos predicts relapse","route":"/key-papers/paper-tracerx-100-nejm-2017/"},{"id":"paper-chan-seng-yue-pancreatic-transcription-phenotypes-nat-genet-2020","kind":"paper","name":"Transcription phenotypes of pancreatic cancer are driven by genomic events during tumor evolution","route":"/key-papers/paper-chan-seng-yue-pancreatic-transcription-phenotypes-nat-genet-2020/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"pancreatic","kind":"cancer","name":"Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma","route":"/cancers/pancreatic/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-targeting-aneuploidy","kind":"idea","name":"Is aneuploidy itself a druggable vulnerability?","route":"/ideas/idea-targeting-aneuploidy/"}]}}