Tumor Cell Escape from Therapy-Induced Senescence as a Model of Disease Recurrence after Dormancy

Senescence, a durable form of growth arrest, represents a primary response to numerous anticancer therapies. Although the paradigm that senescence is "irreversible" has largely withstood the findings of tumor cell recovery from what has been termed "pseudo-senescence" or "senescence-like arrest," a review of the literature suggests that therapy-induced senescence in tumor cells is not obligatorily a permanent cell fate. Consequently, we propose that senescence represents one avenue whereby tumor cells evade the direct cytotoxic impact of therapy, thereby allowing for prolonged survival in a dormant state, with the potential to recover self-renewal capacity and contribute to disease recurrence.