Single-cell analysis of tumors: Creating new value for molecular biomarker discovery of cancer stem cells and tumor-infiltrating immune cells

Figure 2 Main applications of single-cell based profiling in cancer research. A: Resolving intratumor heterogeneity; B: Finding and profiling CSCs within the bulk tumor; C: Tracing circulating CSCs; D: Study extravasation or intravasation and cell plasticity in invasive and metastatic cancer cells; E: Investigating clonal evolution in tumor cells based on their linage differentiation or mutational prevalence; F: Discovery the mechanism of therapy resistance at a single-cell level; G: Single-cell TCR sequencing of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte. CC: Cancer cell; CSC: Cancer stem cell; EMT: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; MET: Mesenchymal-epithelial transition; TCR: T cell receptor; TIL: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte.