This upregulation might reveal a functional parallel between asexual ploidy reduction, for example, occurring in cancer, and sexual ploidy reduction, occurring during meiosis.50 Importantly, depolyploidization was also described to go along with increased levels of OCT4, NANOG and SOX2. 47 Stem cell-like features have also been noted in the progeny of polyploid giant cancer cells,51 suggesting that multinucleated senescent cells and polyploid cancer cells share crucial pro-tumorigenic features. This evidence concerns the gene POU5F1 and cancer.