Spatial Maps of Prostate Cancer Transcriptomes Reveal an Unexplored Landscape of Heterogeneity

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Jun 22

PMID 29925878

Citations 271

Authors

Emelie Berglund

Jonas Maaskola

Niklas Schultz

Stefanie Friedrich

Maja Marklund

Joseph Bergenstrahle

Firas Tarish

Anna Tanoglidi

Sanja Vickovic

Ludvig Larsson

Fredrik Salmen

Christoph Ogris

Karolina Wallenborg

Jens Lagergren

Patrik Stahl

Erik Sonnhammer

Thomas Helleday

Joakim Lundeberg

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Intra-tumor heterogeneity is one of the biggest challenges in cancer treatment today. Here we investigate tissue-wide gene expression heterogeneity throughout a multifocal prostate cancer using the spatial transcriptomics (ST) technology. Utilizing a novel approach for deconvolution, we analyze the transcriptomes of nearly 6750 tissue regions and extract distinct expression profiles for the different tissue components, such as stroma, normal and PIN glands, immune cells and cancer. We distinguish healthy and diseased areas and thereby provide insight into gene expression changes during the progression of prostate cancer. Compared to pathologist annotations, we delineate the extent of cancer foci more accurately, interestingly without link to histological changes. We identify gene expression gradients in stroma adjacent to tumor regions that allow for re-stratification of the tumor microenvironment. The establishment of these profiles is the first step towards an unbiased view of prostate cancer and can serve as a dictionary for future studies.

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