Cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease, with distinct genetic variations occurring both between and within tumors, which makes it extremely difficult to develop effective treatments. The tumor cell microenvironment is a complex community comprised of cancer cells, immune-, stromal-, and other types of cells, as well as non-cellular tissue components, where their interactions collectively determine tumor progression, patient survival, and response to therapy. As interrogation into tumor heterogeneity delves deeper, rapid advances in technologies, such as single-cell sequencing, spatial omics, 3D cell culture systems, and imaging techniques, have provided a greater insight into biological mechanisms responsible for driving tumor diversity and how they impact therapeutic responses.
This topic will focus on multiple facets of tumor heterogeneity, spanning from genetic changes during tumor progression to changes in the cellular complexity of the tumor microenvironment. We will also focus on the progress in different technologies that provide deeper insights into cancer genetics and cellular heterogeneity and how the comprehensive characterization of various cell populations and their interplay in the tumor ecosystem, influences the development of novel and personalized therapeutic strategies.
The editors welcome various article types (including Mini-Reviews and Brief Research Reports) focusing on but not limited to:
• New/improved technological advances to explore tumor heterogeneity;
• Reviews/Mini-Reviews summarizing/discussing cutting-edge technologies that explore heterogeneity in tumor genetics/microenvironment or provide prospective technological directions;
• Original Research/Brief Research Reports exploring the basic/important questions pertaining to tumor heterogeneity;
• Original Research/Brief Research Reports on clinical diagnosis/treatment involving tumor genetics/microenvironment.
More information on article types accepted by the journal can be found
here.
Please note: Descriptive studies consisting solely of bioinformatic investigation of publicly available genomic/transcriptomic/proteomic data do not fall within the scope of the section unless they are expanded and provide significant biological or mechanistic insight into the process being studied.
