Technical Advancements for Studying Immune Regulation of Disseminated Dormant Cancer Cells

Metastases are a major cause of cancer-related death and despite the fact that they have been focus of intense research over the last two decades, effective therapies for patients with distant secondary lesions are still very limited. In addition, in some tumor types metastases can grow years after the patients have been declared clinically cured, indicating that disseminated cancer cells (DCCs) persist undetected for years, even decades in a quiescent state. Clinical and experimental data highlight the importance of the immune system in shaping the fitness and behaviour of DCCs. Here, we review mechanisms of survival, quiescence and outgrowth of DCCs with a special focus on immune-regulation and we highlight the latest cutting-edge techniques for modelling the biology of DCCs in vitro and for studying the metastatic niche in vivo . We believe that a wide dissemination of those techniques will boost scientific findings towards new therapies to defeat metastatic relapses in cancer patients.