Pan-cancer blueprint of tumour microenvironment
A pan-cancer blueprint of the heterogeneous tumor microenvironment revealed by single-cell profiling
- The tumour microenvironment (TME) is a complex ecosystem composed of stromal and cancer cells. The stromal compartment is highly heterogeneous, consisting of tissue-resident and tumour-infiltrating cells, both of which are profoundly moulded by cancer cells. An outstanding question is to what extent this stromal cell heterogeneity is similar between cancers affecting different organs. Here, we profiled the transcriptomes of more than 233,000 single cells from patients with lung, colorectal, ovary and breast cancer (n=36) and constructed a pan-cancer blueprint of stromal cell heterogeneity. We overall identified 68 stromal cell phenotypes, of which 46 were shared between cancer types and 22 were cancer type-unique. Most cell phenotypes have previously not been characterised in detail at single-cell level. By providing such comprehensive blueprint, we generated a first detailed view on the shared complexity of stromal cells in different cancers.
- A pan-cancer blueprint of the heterogeneous tumour microenvironment revealed by single-cell profiling, Qian et al.,Cell Res (2020).