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Poker face no more: cancer recurrence reveals its hand

Nature Medicine volume 19, pages 1569–1570 (2013)Cite this article

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Recurrent disease after apparent 'cure' of primary tumors is a common factor that contributes to cancer-associated mortality. A new study suggests that an inflammatory cytokine signature may provide a clinical indication of emergent recurrent disease and, accordingly, may suggest how to select and deliver therapy targeted against the secondary tumor (pages 1625–1631).

The presence of immune infiltrates in tumor microenvironments is now recognized as a key hallmark of cancer5. However, the role of the immune response to cancer is paradoxical6 and largely dependent on tissue context and tumor type involved7,8. When an antitumor immune response prevails, although it can initially suppress cancer progression, the tumor cells can also evolve and, through natural selection of specific clones, subsequently evade antitumor immunity9. Thus, an antitumor immune response provides one mechanistic pressure by which cancers can evolve during tumor dormancy10.

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Figure 1: Systemic VEGF and IL-6 are functional indicators of early recurrent disease in cancer.

Katie Vicari

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Christopher J. Chan and Lisa M. Coussens are at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA.,

    Christopher J Chan & Lisa M Coussens

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  1. Christopher J Chan
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  2. Lisa M Coussens
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Correspondence to Lisa M Coussens.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chan, C., Coussens, L. Poker face no more: cancer recurrence reveals its hand. Nat Med 19, 1569–1570 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3410

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