Tumor dormancy and MYC inactivation: Pushing cancer to the brink of normalcy

Upon MYC inactivation, tumors undergo proliferative arrest, cellular differentiation, apoptosis and in some cases, permanently revoke tumorigenesis. In liver tumor cells, we recently showed that MYC inactivation uncovers stem cell properties and triggers differentiation, but in this case, their neoplastic properties are restorable by MYC reactivation. Thus, whereas oncogene inactivation can push cancer to the brink of normalcy, some cells retain the latent capacity to turn cancerous again, arguing that they may exist in a state of tumor dormancy.