Editorial: Dormant Cancer Cells, Cancer Progression, and Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 and Influenza

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine uptake has fallen, and awareness of the long-term consequences of respiratory virus infections, particularly long COVID, also known as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), has also lost momentum. After a decade of declining mortality rates from cancer in the US, from 2020, registered age-standardized cancer-related deaths and mortality increased for all cancers. Cancer cell 'dormancy' results from an equilibrium between tumor cell division and apoptosis, and provides an explanation for relapse and metastasis that can occur months, years, or decades after treatment. In July 2025, findings from a study in mice infected with influenza and SARS-CoV-2 showed the rapid loss of the pro-dormancy phenotype in breast carcinoma cells in the lung, and expansion of metastatic carcinoma cells within weeks. Animal model findings support findings in cancer survivors that SARS-CoV-2 infection was significantly associated with an increased risk of lung metastasis and cancer-related mortality. This Editorial aims to highlight findings from real-world population studies on the association between COVID-19 and cancer and new experimental findings for how SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and possibly other respiratory viruses may 'awaken' dormant cancer cells.