Dissecting the transcriptomic landscape of the human papillary thyroid carcinoma by single cell RNA-sequencing

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common malignant phenotype of thyroid cancer, with a rapidly increasing number of new cases globally. Multifocality is a common phenomenon in patients with PTC. The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a pivotal role in cancer progression in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), yet the composition and phenotype of cells within TME in bilateral PTCs are poorly understood. Overall design: To comprehensively elucidate the inter-tumor heterogeneity of bilateral PTC, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to profile 29,561 cells from 3 pairs of bilateral PTCs and 1 non-tumor thyroid sample. Our integrative analyses revealed great inter-tumor heterogeneity within tumor microenvironment in bilateral PTCs, which will offer assistance for precise diagnosis and treatment.