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.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to Nature+
Get immediate online access to Nature and 55 other Nature journal
$29.99
monthly
Subscribe to Journal
Get full journal access for 1 year
$119.00
only $9.92 per issue
All prices are NET prices.
VAT will be added later in the checkout.
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.
Buy article
Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.
$32.00
All prices are NET prices.

References
Lo, Y.-H., Karlsson, K. & Kuo, C. J. Applications of organoids for cancer biology and precision medicine. Nat. Cancer 1, 761–773 (2020). A Review article that discusses the potential of organoids for personalized medicine.
Batlle, E. & Clevers, H. Cancer stem cells revisited. Nat. Med. 23, 1124–1134 (2017). This Review discusses the role of tumor environment niche factors in cancer stem cell plasticity.
Nusse, Y. M. et al. Parasitic helminths induce fetal-like reversion in the intestinal stem cell niche. Nature 559, 109–113 (2018). This Article reveals the acquisition of a fetal-like program by the damaged intestinal mucosa.
Boumahdi, S. & de Sauvage, F. J. The great escape: tumour cell plasticity in resistance to targeted therapy. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 19, 39–56 (2020). A Review article discussing the importance of cellular plasticity and the microenvironment in therapy resistance.
Shen, S., Vagner, S. & Robert, C. Persistent Cancer. Cells: The Deadly Survivors. Cell 183, 860–874 (2020). This Article reviews the mechanisms utilized by tumor cells to survive drug treatments.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Colorectal cancer cells expressing Mex3a drive recurrence after chemotherapy. Nat Cancer 3, 1024–1025 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00409-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-022-00409-7