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TUMORIGENESIS

Strength lies in difference

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 22, page 547 (2022)Cite this article

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Cancer cells are characterized by transcriptional heterogeneity, which contributes to tumour progression, metastasis and treatment failure. In this study, Barkley and colleagues conducted single-cell RNA sequencing of almost 20,000 malignant cells derived from 62 untreated primary tumours of 15 cancer types. The researchers used non-negative matrix factorization to identify 16 sets of commonly co-expressed genes, also termed consensus modules. Some identified modules reflect cancer cells of origin (such as neurons and epithelial cells) or tissue environments (including the brain and reproductive tract). Others are shared by multiple tumour types.

Barkley and colleagues find that the same consensus modules are also expressed in normal cells, albeit with greater consistency and specificity — suggesting that the identified consensus modules co-opt existing cellular programmes. In cancer cells, however, these modules are expressed heterogeneously, at non-physiological levels and in non-physiological combinations, producing a continuum of cell states that represent heightened plasticity.

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References

Original article

  • Barkley, D. et al. Cancer states recur across tumor types and form specific interactions with the tumour microenvironment. Nat. Genet. 54, 1192–1201 (2022)

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  1. Nature Reviews Cancer http://www.nature.com/nrc/

    Caroline Barranco

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  1. Caroline Barranco
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Correspondence to Caroline Barranco.

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Barranco, C. Strength lies in difference. Nat Rev Cancer 22, 547 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-022-00511-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-022-00511-z

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