Chemotherapy is supposed to kill cancer — not bring it back. But a groundbreaking Cancer Cell study by He et al has revealed that common cancer drugs like doxorubicin and cisplatin can reawaken dormant tumor cells, triggering deadly metastatic relapses — especially in the lungs.
These “sleeping” cancer cells, known as disseminated tumor cells (DTCs), can lie hidden for years before reactivating. This study is the first to directly prove that chemotherapy itself can wake them up.
