The single cell transcriptional landscape of human lung adenocarcinoma (primary tumours and metastases)

By transcriptionally profiling single cells from patients spanning different stages of lung adenocarcinoma progression, we provide evidence of epithelial regeneration in untreated primary tumours and a continuum of phenotypic states spanning key stages of embryonic development and lung morphogenesis in metastases. We transcriptionally profiled 41,384 single cells obtained from fresh surgical human samples taken from non-tumour-involved lung (n = 4), primary lung adenocarcinomas (n = 8; 7 untreated and 1 post neo-adjuvant chemotherapy), as well as brain (n = 3), bone (n = 1), and adrenal (n = 1) lung adenocarcinoma metastases. These samples were derived from patients spanning various stages of tumour progression without enrichment for a specific cell type, such that the entire tumour and its microenvironment were sampled in an unbiased manner. Data from all patients were merged to create a global cell atlas of the normal lung, primary tumours, and metastases.