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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Jan 27.
Published in final edited form as: Clin Exp Metastasis. 2019 May 17;36(4):305–309. doi: 10.1007/s10585-019-09972-3

Figure 1: Side-by-side depictions of treatment scenarios for advanced cancer to highlight the benefit of stopping the emergence of overt metastasis from dormant disseminated cancer.

Figure 1:

A) A treatment scenario in which the dormant disseminated cancer is not considered. B) A treatment scenario where, in conjunction with conventional therapy, additional treatment targeting dormant disease significantly delays (a) or prevents entirely (b) the emergence of overt metastasis years and even decades after treatment for the primary tumor was deemed successful; scenario b could be achieve by maintaining dormancy or by eradicating the dormant disseminated tumor cells. Also treatment of overt metastasis could include therapies to kill dormant disseminated tumor cells and thus stop not only proliferative, but also non-proliferative cells in metastatic organs.