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Mitotic Catastrophe
• Mitotic catastrophe takes place at long times after irradiation
– Depends on proliferation rate
– Influenced by DNA repair capacity
• Cell death may occur at different times following mitotic catastrophe
– Nuclear fragmentation
– Apoptosis, necrosis, senescence, autophagy
• Cells may attempt several divisions
– Multiple failed divisions
– Cell fusions
– Giant cell formation, multiple micronuclei
• Genome becomes so unstable as to no longer support normal cell
function