With a growing number of cancer survivors, we need to understand better the twin processes of tumor dormancy and metastatic cancer recurrence. While remarkable progress has been made in understanding the biology of cancer – leading in part to the development of new, less toxic drugs – our understanding of the biology of tumor metastasis, and especially the development of metastases after a long period of tumor dormancy, has lagged.
随着癌症康复者的数量不断增多，我们需要进一步了解肿瘤休眠和转移性复发这两个过程。虽然我们对癌症生理特征的理解大幅推进——因此在某方面促进了新低毒药物的研制——但对肿瘤转移尤其是长期肿瘤休眠之后的转移则相对较少。