{"id":238858,"date":"2026-06-12T23:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/respiratory-viruses-wake-up-dormant-cancer-cells"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:04:54","slug":"respiratory-viruses-wake-up-dormant-cancer-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/respiratory-viruses-wake-up-dormant-cancer-cells","title":{"rendered":"Respiratory Viruses Wake Up Dormant Cancer Cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/respiratory-viruses-wake-up-dormant-cancer-cells.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cancer remission, in which tumor cells enter a dormant state and a patient\u2019s symptoms subside, can persist for years or decades.<sup>1<\/sup> Both the cancer cells themselves and the tumor microenvironment maintain this period of inactivity.<sup>2<\/sup> While inflammation has been shown to disrupt this microenvironment, leading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/new-understanding-of-metastasis-could-lead-to-better-treatments-68572\" target=\"_self\">metastasis<\/a>, the mechanisms of this process remain unclear.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing a trend in increased cancer deaths in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer biologists <a href=\"https:\/\/einsteinmed.edu\/labs\/julio-aguirre-ghiso\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julio Aguirre-Ghiso<\/a> at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and <a href=\"https:\/\/medschool.cuanschutz.edu\/biochemistry\/people\/primary-faculty\/degregori-james\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" id=\"isPasted\">James DeGregori<\/a> at the University of Colorado suspected that viral infections could be activating dormant cancer cells. In partnership with researchers at Utrecht University, the teams showed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/prenatal-inflammation-makes-mice-susceptible-to-asthma-72078\" target=\"_self\">inflammation from viral infections<\/a> activated dormant cancer cells and increased metastasis.<sup>3<\/sup> The findings, published in <em>Nature<\/em>, provide important insights into cancer remission for clinicians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDormant cancer cells are like the embers left in an abandoned campfire, and respiratory viruses are like a strong wind that reignites the flames,\u201d DeGregori said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/montefioreeinstein.org\/news\/2025\/07\/30\/respiratory-viruses-can-wake-breast-cancer-cells-lungs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press release<\/a> about the study findings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cancer remission, in which tumor cells enter a dormant state and a patient\u2019s symptoms subside, can persist for years or decades.1 Both the cancer cells themselves and the tumor microenvironment maintain this period of inactivity.2 While inflammation has been shown to disrupt this microenvironment, leading to metastasis, the mechanisms of this process remain unclear. Seeing [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}