Abstract
The observation and analysis of intra-tumour heterogeneity (ITH), particularly in genomic studies, has advanced our understanding of the evolutionary forces that shape cancer growth and development. However, only a subset of the variation observed in a single tumour will have an impact on cancer evolution, highlighting the need to distinguish between functional and non-functional ITH. Emerging studies highlight a role for the cancer epigenome, transcriptome and immune microenvironment in functional ITH. Here, we consider the importance of both genetic and non-genetic ITH and their role in tumour evolution, and present the rationale for a broad research focus beyond the cancer genome. Systems-biology analytical approaches will be necessary to outline the scale and importance of functional ITH. By allowing a deeper understanding of tumour evolution this will, in time, encourage development of novel therapies and improve outcomes for patients.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank C. Bailey, A. Frankell, E. Colliver, C.-M. Ruiz and J. Demeulemeester for their thoughtful review of the manuscript. N.M is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow, jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (Grant Number 211179/Z/18/Z), and also receives funding from Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, Rosetrees, and the NIHR BRC at University College London Hospitals.
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J.R.M.B. and N.M. both researched data for the article and made a substantial contribution to discussion of content, writing, reviewing and editing the article.
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The authors declare no competing interests. N.M. has received consultancy fees and has stock options in Achilles Therapeutics. N.M. holds European patents relating to targeting neoantigens (PCT/EP2016/ 059401), identifying patient response to immune checkpoint blockade (PCT/ EP2016/071471), determining HLA LOH (PCT/GB2018/052004), predicting survival rates of patients with cancer (PCT/GB2020/050221). J.R.M.B. declares no competing interests.
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Glossary
- Intra-tumour heterogeneity
-
(ITH). Variation within the same tumour; this can be non-functional, a result of neutral evolution, or functional, leading to selection that shapes ongoing tumour evolution.
- Chromosomal instability
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(CIN). A defect in which cells can gain, lose or rearrange parts of chromosomes or whole chromosomes during cell division; this is a source of variation in cancer.
- Chromothripsis
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A mutational process in which large numbers of clustered structural rearrangements occur in single or multiple chromosomes.
- Molecular time
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An estimate of the timing of an event, from the first cell division following fertilization to a cell division that occurred only recently before sampling.
- Enhancer
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A short genomic region that influences the expression of another gene in cis.
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Black, J.R.M., McGranahan, N. Genetic and non-genetic clonal diversity in cancer evolution. Nat Rev Cancer 21, 379–392 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-021-00336-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-021-00336-2
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