Studies have found that certain genes allow cancer cells to hibernate

An international team of researchers has reported that they have identified key genes that allow certain cancer cells to hibernate, and that their role is also linked to the micro-environment in which cancer cells are located, a result that could help prevent the metastasis and recurrence of specific cancers in the future.
, after cancer cells hibernate, the body's immune system is difficult to identify and attack, chemotherapy drugs are difficult to play a role in them, so dormant cancer cells are a major risk factor for cancer metastasis and recurrence.
The medical community has been trying to figure out how cancer cells go into hibernation, which could help develop targeted drugs to identify and kill them, said
's lead author, Associate Professor Of the Australian Gavin Institute of Medicine, who led the study.
researchers at the Gavin Institute of Medicine and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who published a paper in the new issue of the American Journal of Blood, say they used a photon microscope to identify dormant myeloma cells in experimental animals.
researchers conducted genomic analysis of dormant myeloma cells to identify all activated genes, and found that certain of these genes were not usually activated in sleepless cancer cells. Further studies have found that these specific genes allow dormant cancer cells to release genetic markers similar to those of human immune cells, thus avoiding attacks by the immune system and drugs, and that these genetic markers are released only when cancer cells approach bone-building cells. The researchers believe this shows that the micro-environment in which cancer cells are located has a key influence on whether they go into hibernation.
"Our approach differs in that cancer cells and their ecosystems are studied as a whole. We found that not only the cancer cells themselves, but also their micro-environment determine whether they are dormant or not. Van told reporters.
the next step will be to use the results to try to identify the genetic markers released by other types of cancer cells when they go into hibernation, hoping to find common characteristics from them and develop targeted therapies specifically targeting dormant cancer cells, the researchers said. (Source: Xinhua News Agency,
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