The functional impact of lymph node (LN) metastasis on systemic tumor progression has been a controversial question for decades. In their recent paper published in Cell, Reticker-Flynn et al. demonstrate that sequential evasion of natural killer (NK) cell control and interferon (IFN)-dependent epigenetic adaptation enhances the probability of LN metastasis. Further, they show that, once formed, LN metastases expand systemic peripheral tolerance and promote distant organ metastasis.
Keywords: NK cells; interferons; lymph node metastasis; systemic tolerance.
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