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Senescent cells feed on their neighbours

Chemotherapy-treated cancer cells that enter a non-dividing state called senescence can nevertheless boost cancer growth. The finding that these cells eat neighbouring cells reveals a mechanism that enables senescent cells to persist.
  1. Michael Overholtzer

    1. Michael Overholtzer is in the Cell Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA.

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Multicellular life requires individual cells to cooperate in a way that benefits the organism. Cells that are uncooperative because they are damaged or dysfunctional, and that pose a threat, are either eliminated by cell death or undergo a usually irreversible growth arrest called senescence1. Senescent cells typically never divide (although there are some rare examples of cells exiting senescence and resuming division), but they can persist in tissues and contribute to ageing and cancer progression2,3. Writing in the Journal of Cell Biology, Tonnessen-Murray et al.4 reveal a deadly activity that underlies the persistence of senescent cells — they can eat their neighbours alive.

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Nature 574, 635-636 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03271-3

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