Applications of single-cell sequencing for human lung cancer: the progress and the future perspective

Abstract

Human lung cancer is an extremely heterogeneous disease. Cell heterogeneity and diversity are responsible for lung cancer’s invasion, metastasis and the resistance to therapies. Recent developments of single-cell analysis make it possible for DNA sequencing, RNA sequencing and genomic element sequencing for single-cells from lung cancer. Methodology of single-cell sequencing was improved to reduce the errors in the processes due to applying tiny amount of the genetic materials. The single-cell sequencing for lung cancer has begun to reveal the deep insights of the cancer evolution and provided the new targets for clinical care. In this review, we briefly describe the methods of isolation, amplification and sequencing of single-cells. We also discuss the current progress in the research of lung cancer and the future prospects in single-cell analysis for the disease.