Embryonic origin of cancer in newborn twins

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) 2026 Preprint Open access

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Authors: Barbara Walkowiak, Henry Lee-Six, Sadie Baskind, Manàs Dave, Pooja Balasubramanian, Nathaniel D. Anderson, Jonathan Kennedy, Thomas R W Oliver, Rohan Verma, Sarita Depani, Simon Hannam, Tom A. Watson
+6 more Dyanne Rampling, Karin Straathof, Liina Palm, J. Ciaran Hutchinson, Olga Slater, Sam Behjati
DOI: 10.64898/2026.05.10.722519
Cited by: 1
References: 12

Abstract

ABSTRACT Studying monozygotic twins who present with identical cancers informs on the developmental origins of childhood tumours. Here, we performed whole genome sequencing on multiple tumour, normal, and placental samples to reconstruct the phylogeny of a soft tissue cancer that spread in utero between monozygotic twins. This generalisable and scalable approach allows us to dissect the earliest stages of twinning, revealing unexpected asymmetrical contributions of embryonic lineages to the placenta and each twin.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Microtubule and mitosis dynamics Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Genetic Syndromes and Imprinting

Publication details

Journal / source
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Publisher
openRxiv
Publication date
13 May 2026
Document type
Preprint