Cyrus Ghajar

Cyrus Ghajar discovered that the perivascular niche maintains disseminated tumor cell dormancy through thrombospondin-1 signaling, and that sprouting neovasculature disrupts this dormancy program by replacing thrombospondin-1 with TGF-beta1 and periostin to reawaken dormant cancer cells. His research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center has elucidated the critical role of the vascular microenvironment in determining whether disseminated breast cancer cells remain quiescent or initiate proliferative metastatic outgrowth. His findings have opened new therapeutic avenues targeting the dormancy niche to prevent late relapse in breast cancer survivors.