“Chromothripsis” is a phenomenon characterized in cancer genomes, defined by the occurrence of tens of hundreds of clustered genomic rearrangements, supposedly having arisen in a single catastrophic event. In this event, contiguous chromosomal regions are fragmented into many pieces via presently unknown mechanisms. Supposedly, the cell’s DNA repair machinery randomly fuses these segments together to rescue the genome. These somatically acquired genomic rearrangements may result in complex patterns of regional copy number changes. They have the potential to interrupt or activate multiple genes, and are consequently implicated in cancer development. It has been proposed that this “shattering” and aberrant repair of a multitude of DNA fragments may provide an alternative oncogenetic route, in contrast to the step-by-step paradigm of cancer development.