cancer ecosystem

Recently there is a growing interest in understanding the cancer ecosystem, which consists of not only tumour cells but also stromal cells, immune cells and in many cases, microbes. Multi-way interactions between various components of the cancer ecosystem have been observed and found to be important for cancer biology. To better explore the cancer ecosystem, we would like to use powerful omics tools like single-cell sequencing and spatial omics to further stratify tumour heterogeneity and identify key determinants of tumorigenesis. The study of cancer ecosystem may also suggest new prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers and uncover novel key aspects of cancer biology that might in the future pave the way towards modulating cancer treatment by altering the ecosystem.