Many patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) relapse after chemotherapy. Tumor cells that do not completely adapt to their environment (owing to an incomplete set of CRC driver mutations) enter a latent state, in which the expression of Mex3a is upregulated. Mex3a+ cells are chemoresistant and reactivate after treatment, which leads to regeneration of the disease.
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This is a summary of: Batlle, E. et al. Mex3a marks drug-tolerant persister colorectal cancer cells that mediate relapse after chemotherapy. Nat. Cancer https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00402-0 (2022).
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Colorectal cancer cells expressing Mex3a drive recurrence after chemotherapy. Nat Cancer 3, 1024–1025 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00409-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00409-7
