Oesophageal cancer (OC) has a poor clinical prognosis and is the 7th leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK. Intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) is believed to be a significant driver of drug resistance and cancer progression. While previous studies have failed to identify pre-existing resistant clones with mutations in OC, this suggests that non-genetic ITH may be a key factor in resistance. Drug-tolerant persister cells, which adapt to drug stress through non-genetic mechanisms, are genetically indistinguishable from other cancer cells. However, these persisters have not been well-studied in OC.
In this talk, I will present my current work on delineating ITH in OCs using advanced single-cell multi-omic profiling and patient-derived organoids.