# Mechanisms of disseminated cancer cell dormancy: an awakening field

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-sosa-nat-rev-cancer/  
OnCo record `paper-sosa-nat-rev-cancer` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one idea page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 25118602 and published in Nature Reviews Cancer; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Metastases arise from residual disseminated tumour cells (DTCs). This can happen years after primary tumour treatment because residual tumour cells can enter dormancy and evade therapies. As the biology of minimal residual disease seems to diverge from that of proliferative lesions, understanding the underpinnings of this new cancer biology is key to prevent metastasis. Analysis of approximately 7 years of literature reveals a growing focus on tumour and normal stem cell quiescence, extracellular and stromal microenvironments, autophagy and epigenetics as mechanisms that dictate tumour cell dormancy. In this Review, we attempt to integrate this information and highlight both the weaknesses and the strengths in the field to provide a framework to understand and target this crucial step in cancer progression.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 25118602 (DOI 10.1038/nrc3793). Matched by DOI alone: one idea page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Nature Reviews Cancer
- Year: 2014
- DOI: 10.1038/nrc3793
- Authors: Sosa MS, Bragado P, Aguirre-Ghiso JA
- What it means: One idea page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- Nat Rev Cancer 2014: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3793
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25118602/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/25118602

## Connected records

- ideas: [Keep them asleep: dormancy maintenance as adjuvant therapy](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-dormancy-maintenance-therapy/)
- journals: [Nature Reviews Cancer](https://onco.cc/journals/nature-reviews-cancer/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/paper-sosa-nat-rev-cancer.json