{"id":107362,"date":"2025-07-31T11:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107362\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T11:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:01:15","slug":"common-viruses-may-wake-dormant-breast-cancer-cells-study-finds-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107362\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Viruses May Wake Dormant Breast Cancer Cells, Study Finds : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breast cancer<\/a> patients who have been in remission for years or even decades may still need to be cautious about respiratory infections.<\/p>\n

Some common viruses<\/a> may re-awaken a very small number of dormant breast cancer cells within our lungs, according to emerging research.<\/p>\n

“Dormant cancer cells are like the embers left in an abandoned campfire, and respiratory viruses are like a strong wind that reignites the flames,” argues<\/a> molecular geneticist James DeGregori from the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Related: Cancer Threat From Oral HPV Is a Lifelong Risk, But Can Be Prevented<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The research began following the COVID-19<\/a> pandemic<\/a>, when DeGregori and his colleagues began to notice a curious uptick in cancer cases.<\/p>\n

To find out more, the international team turned to human population studies and mouse models.<\/p>\n

They found that patients in remission for cancer in the UK Biobank who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2<\/a> later showed a twofold increase in cancer-related death.<\/p>\n

“The extent of this increased risk is almost unheard of in epidemiology for cancer,” says<\/a> epidemiologist Roel Vermeulen from Utrecht University in The Netherlands.<\/p>\n

“It’s a significant effect.”<\/p>\n

That’s not all researchers found, either. Analyzing a separate breast cancer database from the United States, including nearly 37,000 patients, they discovered that a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a greater than 40 percent increased risk of metastatic breast cancer in the lungs.<\/p>\n

Studies in mice suggest that viruses might be behind the spread.<\/p>\n

Influenza<\/a> and SARS-CoV-2 infections triggered dormant breast cancer cells in mice to proliferate after only days of infection.<\/p>\n

Within two weeks, there was “a massive expansion of carcinoma cells into metastatic lesions” by more than 100-fold, write<\/a> the authors, led by molecular geneticist Shi Chia from the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n

“Although species differences warrant caution in interpreting mouse data\u2026 collectively, these findings underscore the substantial metastatic risk COVID-19 posed to cancer survivors,” warn<\/a> the team.<\/p>\n

\"DormantViruses increase IL-6 and contribute to the awakening and expansion of dormant mesenchymal-like breast cancer cells (DCC). (Chia et al., Nature<\/a>, 2025)<\/p>\n

For years now, scientists have suspected that some highly common viruses, like the Epstein-Barr Virus<\/a> (EBV), have the potential to trigger<\/a> certain cancers.<\/p>\n

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is already known to do this<\/a>. That’s why the HPV vaccine has proved so life-changing<\/a> for millions. It prevents deadly, viral-associated diseases, like cervical cancer.<\/p>\n

Since 1936, scientists have been searching<\/a> for a virus that triggers breast cancer in a similar way, mostly in mice and human population studies.<\/p>\n

High-risk viruses have been detected in human breast cancer samples. EBV, for instance, is five times higher<\/a> in breast cancer tissue than in normal tissue.<\/p>\n

But while the idea that viruses may predispose us to cancer is plausible, research in human cells is limited, and the mechanism underlying the disease spread remains undetermined.<\/p>\n

The immune system’s response to viruses could possibly play a role.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

After initial remission, a tiny number of breast cancer cells can remain dormant in lung, bone, and liver tissue.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, inflammation can wake these cancer cells up \u2013 and viral respiratory infections, like the flu<\/a> and COVID-19, can cause inflammation.<\/p>\n

In the current mouse experiments, the influenza A virus only reawakened dormant cancer cells in the lung if they triggered an increase in inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6.<\/p>\n

The same was true of the coronavirus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The findings suggest that the immune system’s response to viruses breeds the perfect environment for cancer to proliferate.<\/p>\n

“What our data suggest is that if you are a cancer patient who has these dormant cells, you may end up living a normal life and dying with these dormant cells, instead of dying because those dormant cells awakened,” says<\/a> DeGregori.<\/p>\n

“But if you get a respiratory virus like influenza or COVID, your chance of dying from those dormant cells awakening is much greater.”<\/p>\n

If that’s true, then it will be vital to protect the millions of breast cancer survivors out there who may face an increased risk of relapse if they get sick.<\/p>\n

Further research is needed to see if vaccination against influenza or COVID-19 can help.<\/p>\n

The study was published in Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breast cancer patients who have been in remission for years or even decades may still need to be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,352,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-107362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-msft-content","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114947509292898232","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}