"Nature" sub-published that a new kind of cancer cells will be dormant or the key to cancer recurrence!

For patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL), the first stage of treatment (the first 28 days) is very critical

Unfortunately, there are still some patients who will lose their lives because of the recurrence of the disease

As with all types of cancer, tumors can be caused when there are some abnormal mutations in the genes of normal cells that affect the normal mode of cell replication

According to this line of thinking, if surviving cancer cells can be isolated from patients undergoing chemotherapy, it will be possible to find out which mutations are in the cell population that is resistant to therapy

Scientists at University College London first tested this idea in a mouse model.

The researchers envisioned a unique type of cell population that could evade chemotherapy, but the results surprised them

However, these cells have a unique state, which researchers call a resistant cell state

This is the first time that researchers have found such dormant cancer cells in BCP-ALL.

Of course, the researchers emphasized that gene mutations play a more important role in other cancers, especially those cancer types that require targeted therapy

The research team will consider how to use this feature to treat BCP-ALL in the next step

Another way is to activate all dormant cells before chemotherapy and then kill them collectively

Note: The original text has been deleted

Reference materials:

[1] Discovery of'sleepy' dormant cells that resist chemotherapy paves way to new therapies.

[2] Virginia A.