A single-cell analysis of breast cancer cell lines to study tumour heterogeneity and drug response.

Cancer cells within a tumour have heterogeneous phenotypes and exhibit dynamic plasticity. How to evaluate such heterogeneity and its impact on outcome and drug response is still unclear. Here, we transcriptionally profile 35,276 individual cells from 32 breast cancer cell lines to yield a single cell atlas. We find high degree of heterogeneity in the expression of biomarkers. We then train a deconvolution algorithm on the atlas to determine cell line composition from bulk gene expression profiles of tumour biopsies, thus enabling cell line-based patient stratification. Finally, we link results from large-scale in vitro drug screening in cell lines to the single cell data to computationally predict drug responses starting from single-cell profiles. We find that transcriptional heterogeneity enables cells with differential drug sensitivity to co-exist in the same population. Our work provides a framework to determine tumour heterogeneity in terms of cell line composition and drug response.

Patología apendicular: de lo frecuente a lo infrecuente / Appendicular pathology: from frequent to infrequent

La apendicitis aguda es la patología más común en el apéndice y la causa principal del abdomen quirúrgico. Aproximadamente 300,000 personas se someten a apendicectomía cada año en los Estados Unidos. El riesgo estimado de presentar un cuadro de apendicitis aguda en algún momento de la vida está estimado en un 7%. El uno por ciento de las apendicectomías corresponde a tumores apendiculares. Los tumores malignos se confirman por análisis patológico en 0,9 al 1.4% de todas las apendicetomías realizadas.Objetivos. Evaluar incidencia de patología apendicular benigna, analizar la incidencia de tumores apendiculares, determinar sobrevida y mortalidad de tumores apendiculares a 5 años. (AU)

The acute appendicitis is the most common pathology in the appendix and the main cause of the surgical abdomen. Approximately 300,000 people undergo appendectomy each year in the United States. The life-time risk of acute appendicitis is around 7%. One percent of the appendicectomies correspond to appendicular tumors. Malignant tumors are confirmed by pathological analysis in 0.9­1.4% of all appendectomies performed. Objectives To evaluate the incidence of benign appendicular pathology, to analyze the incidence of appendicular tumors, to determine survival and mortality of appendicular tumors at 5 years. (AU)