Dormant

Cancer cells which have been shed from the original tumour and have settled in a distant site, for example, the lungs or the bone marrow. They enter a state of ‘suspended animation’ where they do not multiply and so are often unaffected by chemotherapy. At some point in the future, by mechanisms not fully understood, they leave this state and start dividing, or even re-enter the circulation, to ultimately form secondary tumours (metastases).

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