Translational Application of Single-cell Transcriptomic Analysis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

ABSTRACT

The emergence of single-cell technology in recent years has made remarkable progress for understanding of biological process in various diseases including cancers. In particular of cancer, single-cell transcriptome analysis provides a powerful tool for comprehensive characterization of cancer cell subpopulations within a heterogeneous bulk populations. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous cancer and its molecular mechanism is extremely complex associated with a poor prognosis. To date, the molecular mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis remain unclear. Here, I review current status of single-cell transcriptome analysis for HCC, focusing on their application for cancer genomics, circulating tumor cells, cancer stem cells and tumor infiltrating cells in HCC.