An atlas of lung cancer cells has been compiled

This tumor is more complicated than previously thought

Anna Kerman, XX2 century, based on Medical Xpress: Scientists create a complete atlas of lung tumor cells.

The lung tumor itself can be seen on a regular X-ray. But to find out what cells it consists of, scientists had to resort to more modern technologies.

A group of scientists from the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie) and the Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) analyzed thousands of drugs from the tissues of healthy lungs and lungs affected by cancer. This work allowed experts to create the first detailed atlas of lung tumor cells, and also to find out that lung tumors are much more complicated than previously thought. The authors of the new atlas identified 52 different types of malignant cells.

The article based on the results of the work was published in the journal Nature Medicine (Lambrechts et al., Phenotype molding of stromal cells in the lung tumor microenvironment).

Although scientists have made significant progress in the fight against cancer, the scientific understanding of the organization of tumors at the cellular level is still very limited. However, modern technologies, for example, sequencing of a single cell, allow us to study individual cells together with their microenvironment and learn a lot about different cellular phenotypes.

Tumors are complex ecosystems that consist of cells interacting with the environment. A detailed study of tumors requires the availability of technologies that have appeared relatively recently. So, as part of a new study, scientists used RNA sequencing of single cells, thus studying about 100 thousand objects. The researchers came to the attention of both cancer cells themselves and cells that are present in tumors, but are not cancerous – for example, blood vessel cells, immune cells and connective tissue cells. All these data were used to create an atlas of cellular phenotypes found in lung tumors.

Professor Dieter Lambrechts explains: "We were surprised when we found many more different types of cells in tumors than we expected. We have described 52 types, although it was believed that there were about ten of them. This shows that the tumors are much more complicated than we assumed."

Many of the cells included in the atlas have never been described in their natural environment before. Since the group of researchers studied not only the cells located directly in the tumor, but also the cells living outside it, the scientists were able to figure out how the tumor changes the cells living in it.

Professor Bernard Thienpont explains: "The detailed atlas that we have developed contains descriptions of reference cell samples that have been thoroughly studied either in vitro or in animal models until today. For the first time, we were able to see how accurately these models reflect what is happening in the body of patients.

In addition, our work opens the door for future research. Are our findings applicable if we are talking about other types of tumors? How does therapy affect these cells, and how do they develop resistance? How should the cells be located in the tumor, and can we restore the cellular structure of the tumor? How will tumors be able to form and maintain such complex structures, and can we develop a therapy that uses specific vulnerabilities, "weak points" of the tumor? All these issues require additional study."

Dr. Els Wauters adds: "The new data we have collected can be used to develop strategies to combat the formation of blood vessels in tumors and to find new potential targets for immunotherapy. In addition, we have shown that the presence of certain types of cells is associated with a deterioration in the survival of patients, and this, in turn, underlines that our findings are important from a clinical point of view."

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