Single-cell RNA-seq Analysis of intratumoral heterogeneity in esophageal carcinoma

We aimed to establish cellular atlas of the microenvironment of esophageal cancer and to understand its system biology. Single-cell transcriptome sequencing was performed on blood, esophageal tumors and matched adjacent nonmalignant tissue from 13 esophageal cancer patients (3 blood samples, 13 nonmalignant samples and 15 tumor samples). This work establishes a rich resource of stromal cell types of esophageal cancer microenvironment for further understanding of esophageal cancer biology. Furthermore, we identify cancer-specific vulnerabilities from various cell types which may aid the development of more innovative and efficacious anti-cancer therapy.