Mitotic stopwatch pathway shows how cancer loses its sense of time to avoid stress responses

When cell division (mitosis) takes too long, it can be a sign that something is wrong with the cells, for example, DNA damage or chromosomal instability. That's why our cells come with an innate ability to tell the time, with a stress response known as the mitotic stopwatch pathway activating after prolonged mitosis, and triggering cell cycle arrest, or even cell death.