Nodal interferon exposure drives tumour-specific tolerance

摘要

Although lymph node (LN) colonization by primary cancer cells is a well-known predictor of metastasis, not all distant metastases are derived from LN-resident cancer cells. Nathan Reticker-Flynn and colleagues explain this seeming inconsistency by showing that exposure to interferons and interactions with immune cells in LNs not only epigenetically rewires cancer cells, by inducing a tumour-intrinsic interferon response programme that increases their metastatic potential, but also generates tumour-specific immune tolerance that promotes metastasis of both the primary tumour and LN-resident cancer cells.