Cancer Dormancy: Linking Laboratory and Clinical Findings

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past 20 to 25 years, tumor dormancy has gradually become a topic of interest among many researchers, who have realized its crucial role in the development of cancer and in its possible therapies. Laboratory studies have delved into numerous biological aspects of dormancy, ranging from genetic and epigenetic to metabolic to microenvironment-related traits. Beginning with breast cancer, clinical studies have extended our knowledge of the tumor dormancy influence on disease development, both during its natural history and following therapeutic interventions.

Clinicians note phenomena that appear to be somewhat related to dormancy, such as, for example, the structure of the dynamics of metastasis occurrence in relation to surgical removal of the primary, the diversity of metastatic behavior among different tumors (e.g., breast vs. colon vs. NSCLC), the positive effect of peri-surgical administration of certain anti-inflammatory agents, and the role of certain peculiar patient characteristics (body weight, physical activity). These phenomena are considered clinical manifestations of events involving the biology of cells released from the primary, before and after their establishment in organs (pre-metastatic niche, tumor homeostasis, dormancy and awakening of DTCs, multiplicity of dormancy types, role of the immune system, etc.).

To date, the two levels of study have been quite unconnected, and we believe it is time to establish a link that seeks to precisely clarify the biological aspects of dormancy that underlie clinical behaviors. An attempt to coordinate bench with bedside studies on tumor dormancy is mandatory.

For this Special Issue, we welcome original and review papers that deal with investigations on tumor dormancy traits underlying cancer clinical events.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Romano Demicheli
Prof. Dr. Michael W. Retsky
Prof. Dr. Elia Biganzoli
Guest Editors

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• disseminated cancer cells
• metastatic niche
• dormancy multiplicity
• dormancy dynamics
• tumor homeostasis
• host role in tumor dormancy
• host role in dormant metastasis awakening
• immunity role in dormancy