Sorting cancer karyotypes using double-cut-and-joins, duplications and deletions

Problems of genome rearrangement are central in both evolution and cancer research. Most genome rearrangement models assume that the genome contains a single copy of each gene and the only changes in the genome are structural, i.e. reordering of segments. In contrast, tumor genomes also undergo numerical changes such as deletions and duplications, and thus the number of copies of genes varies. Dealing with unequal gene content is a very challenging task, addressed by few algorithms to date. More realistic models are needed to help trace genome evolution during tumorigenesis.