STING1 and cancer: Moreover, recent studies have discovered that when cells at tumor metastasis sites are in a dormant state, using STING agonists can inhibit cancer cells from progressing from a quiescent state to aggressive metastasis in a manner dependent on NK cells and T cells.228 Interestingly, the STING pathway undergoes dynamic changes in its expression levels—downregulation, upregulation, and then downregulation again—during the stages of dormancy, proliferation, and macrometastasis, mediated by epigenetic regulation.