Sweet dreams: glycosylation controls tumor cell dormancy

In a recent study in Cancer Cell, Sreekumar et al. used therapyassociated breast cancer mouse models as well as in vitro dormancy models to identify extracellular matrix (ECM)-related tumor cellautonomous mechanisms of dormancy in residual tumor cells (RTCs). The study reveals an important role of the glycosylation of proteoglycans in sustaining dormancy and opens the door to leverage this biology to eliminate RTCs and prevent recurrence.