Understanding the “zombie cells” that won’t die

This news section is written by a medical journalist and offers Cancer Cytopathology readers timely information on events, issues, and personalities of interest to the subspecialty. In this issue, senescence, a defensive crouch for human cells, is emerging as a highly complicated but newly energized front in the battle against cancer because these “zombie” cells’ refuse to die easily, stop dividing, grow in size, become somewhat disorganized, and start pumping out an array of functionally diverse factors.