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Breast cancer

Intervening on dormancy to prevent breast cancer recurrence

Dormant tumour cells that survive initial therapy can awaken years later to seed metastases. New data from a phase II trial indicate that intercepting this dormancy by targeting autophagy and mTOR signalling might prevent breast cancer relapse before it begins, opening a path towards proactive prevention disease recurrence.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. H. Stoecklein and H. Pospiech for critical reading of the text.

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Correspondence to Tanja Fehm.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Fehm, T., Neubauer, H. Intervening on dormancy to prevent breast cancer recurrence. Nat Rev Clin Oncol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-025-01087-x

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