Genome Medicine · Published 2024-01-09 · Journal article · DOI 10.1186/s13073-023-01279-z · PMID: 38195504 · PMC · Cited by 6 (Crossref)
Gerda Kildisiute, Maria Kalyva, Rasa Elmentaite, Stijn van Dongen, Christine Thevanesan, Alice Piapi, Kirsty Ambridge, Elena Prigmore, Muzlifah Haniffa, Sarah A. Teichmann, Karin Straathof, Isidro Cortés-Ciriano, Sam Behjati, Matthew D. Young
Abstract Background As normal cells transform into cancers, their cell state changes, which may drive cancer cells into a stem-like or more primordial, foetal, or embryonic cell state. The transcriptomic profile of this final state may encode information about cancer’s origin and how cancers relate to their normal cell counterparts. Methods Here, we used single-cell atlases to study cancer transformation in transcriptional terms. We utilised bulk transcriptomes across a wide spectrum of adult and childhood cancers, using a previously established method to interrogate their relationship to normal cell states. We extend and validate these findings using single-cell cancer transcriptomes and organ-specific atlases of colorectal and liver cancer. Results Our bulk transcriptomic data reveals that adult cancers rarely return to an embryonic state, but that a foetal state is a near-universal feature of childhood cancers. This finding was confirmed with single-cell cancer transcriptomes. Conclusions Our findings provide a nuanced picture of transformation in human cancer, indicating cancer-specific rather than universal patterns of transformation pervade adult epithelial cancers.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Kildisiute, G., Kalyva, M., Elmentaite, R., et al. (2024). Transcriptional signals of transformation in human cancer. Genome Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-023-01279-z