Mitochondrial Insult and Revenge in Tumorigenesis

Mitochondrial Insult and Revenge in Tumorigenesis

Early detection and monitoring of aggressive diseases are major challenges in cancer research and require development of signature biomarkers. It is now well accepted that the superior intellect of a cancer cell is governed not only by the nuclear genome alterations but also mitochondrial genetic changes as envisioned long ago by Otto Warburg. Fortunately, in this century, Warburg has been revisited and regarded as one of the hallmarks of cancer. Following these footprints, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) alterations (mutation and copy number) are emerging as a novel and attractive tool for biomarker development along with nuclear DNA markers.