Spatial transcriptomics: a new frontier in cancer research

Abstract

Abstract Tumor research is a fundamental focus of medical science, yet the intrinsic heterogeneity and complexity of tumors present challenges in understanding their biological mechanisms of initiation, progression, and metastasis. Recent advancements in single-cell transcriptomic sequencing have revolutionized the way researchers explore tumor biology by providing unprecedented resolution. However, a key limitation of single-cell sequencing is the loss of spatial information during single-cell preparation. Spatial transcriptomics (ST) emerges as a cutting-edge technology in tumor research that preserves the spatial information of RNA transcripts, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of the tumor heterogeneity, the intricate interplay between tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment. This review systematically introduces ST technologies and summarizes their latest applications in tumor research. Furthermore, we provide a thorough overview of the bioinformatics analysis workflow for ST data and offer an online tutorial ( https://github.com/SiyuanHuang1/ST_Analysis_Handbook ). Lastly, we discuss the potential future directions of ST. We believe that ST will become a powerful tool in unraveling tumor biology and offer new insights for effective treatment and precision medicine in oncology.