Disseminated tumor cells and dormancy in prostate cancer metastasis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2016.02.002Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Disseminated tumor cells can be found in the majority of prostate cancer patients, even without clinical evidence of metastatic disease.

  • The identity and characteristics of circulating and disseminated tumor cells remain unclear.

  • Autocrine and paracrine signals are likely needed to induce a proliferative switch in dormant prostate cancer DTCs.

  • Therapies to ‘treat’ DTCs need to be developed.

It has been reported that disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) can be found in the majority of prostate cancer (PCa) patients, even at the time of primary treatment with no clinical evidence of metastatic disease. This suggests that these cells escaped the primary tumor early in the disease and exist in a dormant state in distant organs until they develop in some patients as overt metastases. Understanding the mechanisms by which cancer cells exit the primary tumor, survive the circulation, settle in a distant organ, and exist in a quiescent state is critical to understanding tumorigenesis, developing new prognostic assays, and designing new therapeutic modalities to prevent and treat clinical metastases.

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