Highlights
Tumors are highly complex entities comprising cell populations with various transcriptional programs.
Single-cell sequencing technologies are evolving fast and have the capacity to finely characterize the huge heterogeneity inside tumors.
New single-cell sequencing protocols do not need special infrastructure and can be applied to a huge multitude of cancer sample types in many research areas.
A fine characterization of liquid biopsies, tumor functional heterogeneity, and the tumor microenvironment will be followed by an exponential increase in our knowledge on tumor progression and will significantly improve cancer treatment.
Effective cancer treatment has been precluded by the presence of various forms of intratumoral complexity that drive treatment resistance and metastasis. Recent single-cell sequencing technologies are significantly facilitating the characterization of tumor internal architecture during disease progression. New applications and advances occurring at a fast pace predict an imminent broad application of these technologies in many research areas. As occurred with next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, once applied to clinical samples across tumor types, single-cell sequencing technologies could trigger an exponential increase in knowledge of the molecular pathways involved in cancer progression and contribute to the improvement of cancer treatment.
