Targeting drug-tolerant persister cells: Let's bring on the TROPs!

In this issue of Cancer Cell, Liao et al. identify TROP2 as an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor-induced vulnerability in drug-tolerant persister lung cancer cells. They show that anti-TROP2 antibody-drug conjugates target this residual population, supporting an "induce-target-kill" strategy to delay resistance and extend the benefit of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibition.