The first five years of single-cell cancer genomics and beyond
- 1Department of Genetics, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA;
- 2Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA;
- 3Graduate Program in Genes and Development, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
- Corresponding author: nnavin{at}mdanderson.org
Abstract
Single-cell sequencing (SCS) is a powerful new tool for investigating evolution and diversity in cancer and understanding the role of rare cells in tumor progression. These methods have begun to unravel key questions in cancer biology that have been difficult to address with bulk tumor measurements. Over the past five years, there has been extraordinary progress in technological developments and research applications, but these efforts represent only the tip of the iceberg. In the coming years, SCS will greatly improve our understanding of invasion, metastasis, and therapy resistance during cancer progression. These tools will also have direct translational applications in the clinic, in areas such as early detection, noninvasive monitoring, and guiding targeted therapy. In this perspective, I discuss the progress that has been made and the myriad of unexplored applications that still lie ahead in cancer research and medicine.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
