Can Cancer Stem Cells Become Dormant?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

Cancer stem cells have the potential to become dormant, posing a significant challenge for cancer treatment due to their ability to evade conventional therapies and cause disease relapse. Understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that regulate CSC dormancy is crucial for developing effective therapeutic strategies. By targeting the mechanisms that control dormancy, we can potentially prevent cancer recurrence and achieve durable cures for patients.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of cancer cells with the ability to self-renew and differentiate into various cell types that constitute the tumor. These cells are believed to play a crucial role in cancer progression, metastasis, and recurrence. One intriguing aspect of CSCs is their potential to enter a dormant state, where they remain quiescent and undetectable for extended periods before reactivating to cause disease relapse. This article explores the mechanisms behind CSC dormancy, the factors influencing this state, and the implications for cancer treatment.

Mechanisms of CSC Dormancy

CSC dormancy is a complex process influenced by both intrinsic cellular mechanisms and extrinsic factors from the tumor microenvironment. Dormant CSCs can resist conventional therapies, which typically target rapidly dividing cells, making them a significant challenge in cancer treatment.

Intrinsic Mechanisms

Dormant CSCs share several characteristics with normal stem cells, including the ability to enter a quiescent state to preserve their long-term self-renewal capacity. These cells can dynamically switch between active and dormant states in response to various stimuli5. The intrinsic mechanisms of survival and quiescence in CSCs are closely related to their stemness properties, which allow them to evade therapies and remain hidden within the body2.

Extrinsic Factors

The tumor microenvironment plays a crucial role in regulating CSC dormancy. For instance, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the bone marrow can interact with breast cancer cells, promoting their quiescence through the release of exosomes containing specific microRNAs, such as miR-222/2233. These exosomes can inhibit cancer cell proliferation and confer drug resistance, thereby facilitating the maintenance of a dormant state6.

Similarities Between CSCs and Dormant Disseminated Tumor Cells

Dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) and CSCs share several similarities, particularly in their ability to remain quiescent and resist conventional treatments. Both cell types can lie dormant for years before reactivating to form overt metastases2. Understanding the biology of these cells and their interactions with the surrounding microenvironment is vital for developing therapies to prevent cancer recurrence.

Clinical Implications

The presence of dormant CSCs poses significant challenges for cancer treatment. These cells can survive in target organs and generate metastasis long after the primary tumor has been treated, leading to disease relapse4. Therefore, targeting dormant CSCs and understanding the mechanisms that regulate their dormancy are crucial for achieving durable cures for cancer patients.

Therapeutic Strategies

Recent advancements in high-resolution, single-cell technologies have provided new insights into the complex cellular ecosystem and transcriptional landscape that control dormancy1. Novel therapeutic strategies, such as the systemic administration of MSCs loaded with antagomiR-222/223, have shown promise in sensitizing dormant breast cancer cells to chemotherapy and increasing host survival in preclinical models3.

Can cancer stem cells become dormant?

Stanley P. L. Leong MD has answered Likely

An expert from California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in Cancer Metastasis, Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2012; 3: 125.

Published online 2012 Oct 23. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2012.00125

PMCID: PMC3478572

PMID: 23109929

Cancer stem cells, tumor dormancy, and metastasis

Purvi Patel and Emily I. Chen*

Adv Exp Med Biol. 2013;734:145-79. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1445-2_8.

Tumor dormancy and cancer stem cells: two sides of the same coin?

Kleffel S1, Schatton T.

Cancer stem cells have been suggested but not conclusively established.