Pro-senescence Therapy for Cancer: Time for the Clinic

Cellular senescence is a stable cell cycle arrest that occurs in diploid cells during aging. However, diploid cells can also experience an accelerated senescence response, termed pre-mature senescence, driven by DNA-damage, oncogene over-expression or loss of tumour suppressor genes. Recent evidences demonstrate that cellular senescence occurs also in tumours, where it opposes tumour initiation and progression. Senescence cells secrete a variety of cytokines and secreted factors, known as the senescence secretory phenotype (SASP), that regulate both the senescence entry and maintenance and can propagate senescence to adjacent cells, acting in a cell non-autonomous manner. In addition, SASP can also promote the recruitment and activation of immune cells that in turn mediate the clearance of senescent cancer cells.