Centrosomes: keeping tumors in check.

Centrosomal abnormalities have been observed in a wide range of tumors, but it is not clear whether these abnormalities alone can induce cancer formation or whether they are a consequence of cancer progression. Recent work in Drosophila suggests that centrosome defects in asymmetrically dividing cells can induce tumors at a higher frequency than other conditions known to cause genomic instability.