Innate and acquired immune surveillance in the postdissemination phase of metastasis

Metastasis is responsible for the majority of death in cancer patients. Of the different steps in the metastasis cascade, the postdissemination phase is perhaps one of the least understood. Many factors, both from the disseminated tumor cells and the microenvironment, impact the success of the metastatic outgrowth. In this article, we discuss the interactions between colonizing cancer cells and immune cells in the period between vascular arrest in a secondary organ and metastatic outgrowth. We address the ambiguity in the findings of current research regarding the role of immune cells in regulating the metastatic microenvironment, and their hand in determining cancer cell fate.