Cancer scientists are targeting sleeper cells that lie dormant in the body after breaking off of their parent tumour. These cells seed the metastases responsible for about 90% of cancer deaths. New animal models and techniques for identifying these rogue cells are helping researchers to discover the triggers that rouse them and how to keep them at bay.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05445-x?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20180618
At present we need to learn how to identify them to know their genomic characteristics and to study their phenotypic evolution over time. To do this we must also make a concomitant leap in knowledge to answer the following question: what are the metabolic/functional bases that induce the numerous phenotypic changes they are facing? This is just to start with, but there is a serious limitation. To obtain this information multidisciplinary and well skilled groups in cellular and quantitative biology (systems biology, omics sciences, interactomics, and so on) are needed. Without this organization it is almost impossible to develop projects that give reliable and interesting results.
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