Polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCC): short-term return to multicellularity

While the common polyploid cancer cells comply with the 'serial atavism' model of oncogenesis, PGCC present a unique phenomenon of the short-term return to multicellularity probably associated with collective acquisition of resistance to treatment. Our analysis revealed also the evolutionary origin of the main differences in gene expression, emphasizing the importance of gene age axis in transcriptome analyses. The deep evolutionary basis of variation in gene expression across and within cell types might become a general framework for interrelated problems of cell and cancer biology and regenerative medicine.