With new anti-cancer strategies, if we can make cancer cells remain dormant for a long time, will cancer become less terrifying?

2026NATURE CANCER confirms that it is entirely feasible to allow cancer cells to return to the immune system for takeover^[1].

To achieve this, the first step is to break the dormant camouflage of cancer cells. Researchers discovered by inoculating lung adenocarcinoma cells into the lungs of immunocompetent mice that cancer cells, in order to survive, choose to activate an atypical "epithelial-mesenchymal transition" (EMT) process through TGFβ signaling. This process makes cancer cells "soften". From the perspective of biomechanics, cytotoxic T cells and NK cells need to form a link with cancer cells through "immune synapses" when killing cancer cells. At this time, the higher the surface hardness of cancer cells, the more efficiently immune cells can inject perforin and granzyme. Conversely, if cancer cells are too soft, immune cells will find it difficult to form effective killing, allowing cancer cells to escape immune surveillance.

This discovery provides a breakthrough for research. If we knock out the "softening gene" of cancer cells and re-issue a "wanted notice" to them, won't immune cells immediately eliminate them once they awaken from their dormant state? This strategy of "inducing dormancy + immune surveillance" is not about killing all cancer cells, but rather to keep cancer cells from waking up for a long time. Once they awaken, the immune system can quickly eliminate them , in short, to transform cancer into a controllable chronic disease.

From an immunological perspective, the essence of cancer is immune imbalance. When we no longer insist on eliminating cancer cells, but instead begin to see the role of rebuilding immune surveillance, perhaps this is the ultimate wisdom in fighting cancer.

Considering the human body as a delicate ecosystem, the best state is not "life or death", but rather "coexistence". In the past, cancer patients always consumed their hopes in the fight against the disease. Nowadays, more and more people are beginning to focus on long-term coexistence with cancer, which also brings another possibility.

Reference source:

[1]Wang, Z., Elbanna, Y., Godet, I. et al. TGFβ induces an atypical EMT to evade immune mechanosurveillance in lung adenocarcinoma dormant metastasis. Nat Cancer 7, 131–149 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-025-01094-y

Click to view past science popularization