Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul 14:28:1610342.
doi: 10.3389/pore.2022.1610342. eCollection 2022.

A Detailed Overview About the Single-Cell Analyses of Solid Tumors Focusing on Colorectal Cancer

Affiliations
Review

A Detailed Overview About the Single-Cell Analyses of Solid Tumors Focusing on Colorectal Cancer

William J Kothalawala et al. Pathol Oncol Res. .

Abstract

In recent years, the evolution of the molecular biological technical background led to the widespread application of single-cell sequencing, a versatile tool particularly useful in the investigation of tumor heterogeneity. Even 10 years ago the comprehensive characterization of colorectal cancers by The Cancer Genome Atlas was based on measurements of bulk samples. Nowadays, with single-cell approaches, tumor heterogeneity, the tumor microenvironment, and the interplay between tumor cells and their surroundings can be described in unprecedented detail. In this review article we aimed to emphasize the importance of single-cell analyses by presenting tumor heterogeneity and the limitations of conventional investigational approaches, followed by an overview of the whole single-cell analytic workflow from sample isolation to amplification, sequencing and bioinformatic analysis and a review of recent literature regarding the single-cell analysis of colorectal cancers.

Keywords: bioinformatics; colorectal cancer; heterogeneity; multi-omics; single-cell sequencing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Summary of the workflow of single cell isolation and downstream analyses.

References

    1. The Cancer Genome Atlas Network. Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Human colon and Rectal Cancer. Nature (2012) 487:330–7. 10.1038/nature11252 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bonnet D, Dick JE. Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia is Organized as a Hierarchy that Originates from a Primitive Hematopoietic Cell. Nat Med (1997) 3(7):730–7. 10.1038/nm0797-730 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shackleton M, Quintana E, Fearon ER, Morrison SJ. Heterogeneity in Cancer: Cancer Stem Cells versus Clonal Evolution. Cell (2009) 138(5):822–9. 10.1016/j.cell.2009.08.017 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nowell PC. The Clonal Evolution of Tumor Cell Populations. Science (1976) 194(4260):23–8. 10.1126/science.959840 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Al-Hajj M, Wicha MS, Benito-Hernandez A, Morrison SJ, Clarke MF. Prospective Identification of Tumorigenic Breast Cancer Cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A (2003) 100(7):3983–8. 10.1073/pnas.0530291100 - DOI - PMC - PubMed