A Lung Organotypic Coculture Reveals a Role for TFEB-Lysosomal Axis in the Survival of Disseminated Dormant Cancer Cells

摘要

One of the worst aspects of tumors is the relapse of metastatic lesions several years after the removal of the primary tumor and after the patient has been considered disease-free. This particular aspect is called “metastatic dormancy”. Unfortunately, this behavior is particularly hard to study because disseminated cancer cells are technically not detectable by current imaging techniques. We developed a culture of breast cancer cells and lung epithelial cells that recapitulates in vitro several aspects of what is observed in the real lung. With this tool we identified a specific feature: a lysosomal process that is activated in breast cancer cells and which might be used in the future to target those cells before they wake up.