Senescence Elicits Stemness: A Surprising Mechanism for Cancer Relapse

Abstract

Cellular senescence is traditionally viewed as a permanent form of cell cycle arrest that restrains tumorigenesis. In a recent study in Nature, however, Milanovic et al. (2018) challenge this conventional view, showing that senescence can counterintuitively promote cancer stemness and tumor aggressiveness. This finding suggests that attacking senescence can be exploited in cancer therapy.