Cancer dormancy

Dormancy is a stage in cancer progression where the cells cease dividing but survive in a quiescent state while waiting for appropriate environmental conditions to begin proliferation again.

[3][4] Recently, scientists from Aga Khan University Pakistan, have extended the studies of encystation in Acanthamoeba to induce dormancy in Prostate cancer cells lines and understanding of the signalling pathways that are involved.

[1] It is suggested that the disseminated cells choose dormancy when the new environment is not permissive in situations such as cellular stress or a lack of available growth factors.

They can exist in a quiescent state for many years, but the dormancy period can be interrupted to start proliferating uncontrollably and form metastases that cannot be treated.

[1][6][8] One model dubbed DINOMIT (Disjunction, Initiation, Natural selection, Overgrowth, Metastasis, Involution, Transition), proposed by researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, has vitamin D and calcium in adequate levels playing a crucial role in potentially preventing the onset of cancer (Disjunction) as well as allowing a developed cancer to enter and stay in a weak or fully dormant state (Involution and Transition stages).

[1][4][6][7] The ERK pathway has a major role in many cellular processes, but in cancer dormancy it is thought to be involved in mitogenic signaling that results in heightened proliferation.