Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the USA. Although advances in treatment over the past several decades have significantly improved the outlook for this disease, most women who are diagnosed with estrogen receptor positive disease remain at risk of metastatic relapse for the remainder of their life. The cellular source of late relapse in these patients is thought to be disseminated tumor cells that reactivate after a long period of dormancy. The biology of these dormant cells and their natural history over a patient’s lifetime is largely unclear. We posit that research on tumor dormancy has been significantly limited by the lack of clinically relevant models. This review will discuss existing dormancy models, gaps in biological understanding, and propose criteria for future models to enhance their clinical relevance.

乳腺癌是美国最常诊断的癌症。尽管过去几十年治疗的进步显着改善了这种疾病的前景，但大多数被诊断患有雌激素受体阳性疾病的女性在余生中仍面临转移性复发的风险。这些患者晚期复发的细胞来源被认为是播散性肿瘤细胞在长时间休眠后重新激活。这些休眠细胞的生物学特性及其在患者一生中的自然史在很大程度上尚不清楚。我们认为，由于缺乏临床相关模型，肿瘤休眠的研究受到了极大的限制。本综述将讨论现有的休眠模型、生物学理解上的差距，并提出未来模型的标准，以增强其临床相关性。