Scientists have discovered that a set of transcription factors can promote the dormancy of breast cancer cells, which is a key contributor to tumor relapse after treatment. Cancer can reemerge years after treatment of the primary tumor. This phenomenon is attributed to a prolonged state of cell cycle arrest called dormancy, with relapse occurring when tumor cells awaken and re-enter the cell cycle. Understanding how cancer cells enter and exit dormancy may identify ways to screen for, delay, or prevent tumor relapse. Now, Diana Drago-Garcia and colleagues present an intracellular profile of dormancy in aggressive breast cancer cells. The authors identified a set of steroid- and growth factor-regulated transcription factors called OVOLs that induced transition to more epithelial-like phenotypes and dormancy. The team found that OVOLs supported the survival of tumor cells by stimulating selective autophagy that suppressed antioxidant signaling in association with changes in kinase activity. Further research showed that this process involved an uncharacterized gene target named C1ORF116, which correlates with poor prognosis in patients. However, the resulting accumulation of oxidative stress and DNA instability can, over time, reawaken dormant cells in a more aggressive and chemoresistant state, as is often seen in relapsed tumors and metastases. “Future studies might refine our model and identify mutational signatures that underlie escape from dormancy”, the authors say.

*Note – this is an early press release from the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May. Please credit the congress when using this research.*

New research to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2025, Malaga, Spain, 11-14 May) and published in The Journal of Internal Medicine shows that, in survivors of breast cancer, having an unhealthy metabolic profile or so called ‘metabolic syndrome’ increases the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 69%, and subsequent breast cancer mortality by 83%. The study is by Dr Sixten Harborg, Department of Oncology, Aarhus University/Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. and Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, MA, USA, and colleagues.