The dynamics of the metastatic niche: Lung alveolar type 2 cell reprogramming and cancer cell stemness.

The complex cellular interactions supporting metastasis formation remain incompletely understood. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Rodrigues et al. describe a positive feedback loop within the lung metastatic niche, whereby disseminated cancer cells promote the multilineage potential of alveolar type 2 cells, favoring cancer cell stemness and metastasis initiation.