Connecting cancer relapse with senescence

Abstract

Many cancers respond to initial treatment but most of them relapse due to the persistence of dormant tumor cells. Determining the exact nature of the dormant state is crucial to develop therapies aiming to eradicate the dormant cells. Here, we argue that therapy-induced senescence of cancer cells could be an alternative form of dormancy.

Keywords: Cancer relapse; Minimal residual disease; Reprogramming; Secretome; Senescence; Senolytics; Tumor dormancy.