Regulation of cellular dormancy in disseminated breast cancer cells

Abstract

Metastasis is the major cause of death of cancer patients. In breast cancer dissemination from the primary site occurs preferentially in early tumor stages. Early dissemination and prolonged clinical latency at distant sites raise the question about the identity and nature of signals that confer survival, persistence in dormant state over extended periods of time and finally, the outgrowth of DCCs. Since DCCs are "close-to-normal" in terms of their cariotypic profiles, we studied the nature of signals that control metastasis-related processes in the mammary epithelial cells isolated from non-transformed mammary gland. We found IL-6 as one of potential regulators of dormancy/outgrowth of DCCs at the metastatic site.