Transcriptional census of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in cancer

ABSTRACT Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) contributes to tumour progression, promoting therapy resistance and immune cell evasion. Definitive molecular features of this plasticity have largely remained elusive due to the limited scale of most studies. Leveraging scRNA-seq data from 160 tumours spanning 8 different cancer types, we identify expression patterns associated with intratumoural EMP. Integrative analysis of these programs confirmed a high degree of diversity among tumours. These diverse programs are associated with combinations of various common regulatory mechanisms initiated from cues within the tumour microenvironment. We highlight that inferring regulatory features can inform effective therapeutics to restrict EMP.