For example, in some types of breast cancer, patients may be treated for more than a decade with anti-hormone therapies, and these long-term treatments are working – they are successful at preventing some of the cancer recurrences that occur with shorter treatment. But, while these long-term therapies are relatively safe, they do have side-effects, and the number of cancer recurrences that they prevent is small.
事实上，有证据显示肿瘤休眠是治疗的有效部位。比如对某些类型的乳腺癌来说，患者可能已经接受了超过十几年的抗荷尔蒙治疗，而且这些疗法也取得了成果——成功防止了在某些短期疗法中可能出现的复发状况。但这些长期疗法虽然相对安全，却同时也存在副作用，而且只成功预防了少量的癌症复发。