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Dormant tumor cells: Root for recurrence and target for therapy
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Abstract:
With the fast development of early diagnosis and treatment for cancers, the survival rates of victims of this deadly disease has been greatly increased. Yet the survivors still face the threat of reoccurrence. More and more evidence documented that these disease-free patients (and even some so-called healthy people) harbor dormant tumor cells, which are now regarded as the main cause for tumor reoccurrence. Dormant tumor cells refer to a group of cells featured by its minimal number and the inconvenience for detection. These cells are caught in cell cycle arrest and can exist in both patients and healthy people. At present, the mechanism of how these cells are formed and dormancy timing patterns are still unknown. As the bone marrow and peripheral blood of patients are easy obtained, sensitive detection method has been established aimed to detect dormant tumor cells from these two sources. Evidence has shown that immunological suppression, angiogenesis in tumor tissues as well as surgery may all play roles in tumor dormancy activation, and thus lead to tumor reoccurrence and metastasis. As a result, dormant tumor cells have become a crucial target for preventing and treating cancers. However, since dormant tumor cells stay in a tranquil state, they are insensitive to traditional clinical therapies including radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and therefore impose great difficulty for the radical cure. According to the latest research, immune surveillance is closely related to the phenomena of tumor dormancy. As a result, adoptive immunotherapy may bring radical revolution in the area of tumor prevention and treatment. We hope that, with the deepening of research on tumor dormancy, clinical options with high efficiency will be available to wipe out tumor cells or induce tumor cells into permanent dormancy.
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Project Supported:
Project supported by the National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No.30925037), and the Major Project of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Special Foundation for Prevention and Treatment of “AIDS and Virus Hepatitis” Major Infectious Diseases) (No. 2008ZX10002-023)
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