Dormant cancer cells: programmed quiescence, senescence, or both?
Cancer Metastasis Rev
; 42(1): 37-47, 2023 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36598661
Metastasis is the overwhelming driver of cancer mortality, accounting for the majority of cancer deaths. Many patients present with metastatic relapse years after eradication of the primary lesion. Disseminated cancer cells can undergo a durable proliferative arrest and lie dormant in secondary tissues before reentering the cell cycle to seed these lethal relapses. This process of cancer cell dormancy remains poorly understood, largely due to difficulties in studying these dormant cells. In the face of these challenges, the application of knowledge from the cellular senescence and quiescence fields may help to guide future thinking on the study of dormant cancer cells. Both senescence and quiescence are common programs of proliferative arrest that are integral to tissue development and homeostasis. Despite phenotypic differences, these two states also share common characteristics, and both likely play a role in cancer dormancy and delayed metastatic relapse. Understanding the cell biology behind these states, their overlaps and unique characteristics is critical to our future understanding of dormant cancer cells, as these cells likely employ some of the same molecular programs to promote survival and dissemination. In this review, we highlight the biology underlying these non-proliferative states, relate this knowledge to what we currently know about dormant cancer cells, and discuss implications for future work toward targeting these elusive metastatic seeds.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Neoplasms
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Cancer Metastasis Rev
Journal subject:
NEOPLASIAS
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
Country of publication:
Netherlands