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VIDEO: Molecular pathway offers insights into dormancy of cancer cells
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NEW ORLEANS — Sridhar Ramaswamy, MD, associate professor of medicine and attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, presented a study about tumor dormancy at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.
Ramaswamy and colleagues identified a new molecular pathway that seems to allow cancer cells to “flip” form a proliferative state to a quiescent state, making them much harder to eradicate.
Tumor dormancy is particularly problematic in certain types of breast cancer, as patients respond well to initial therapy but then develop late relapse.
“Our belief is that this is going to be more of an issue as we get better at treating primary cancers,” Ramaswamy told HemOnc Today. “By understanding the molecular basis of this pathway, this should lead us to a place where we should be able to develop new approaches to treat these kinds of dormant cells.”