IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pcbi00/1004115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intra-Tumour Signalling Entropy Determines Clinical Outcome in Breast and Lung Cancer

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher R S Banerji
  • Simone Severini
  • Carlos Caldas
  • Andrew E Teschendorff

Abstract

The cancer stem cell hypothesis, that a small population of tumour cells are responsible for tumorigenesis and cancer progression, is becoming widely accepted and recent evidence has suggested a prognostic and predictive role for such cells. Intra-tumour heterogeneity, the diversity of the cancer cell population within the tumour of an individual patient, is related to cancer stem cells and is also considered a potential prognostic indicator in oncology. The measurement of cancer stem cell abundance and intra-tumour heterogeneity in a clinically relevant manner however, currently presents a challenge. Here we propose signalling entropy, a measure of signalling pathway promiscuity derived from a sample’s genome-wide gene expression profile, as an estimate of the stemness of a tumour sample. By considering over 500 mixtures of diverse cellular expression profiles, we reveal that signalling entropy also associates with intra-tumour heterogeneity. By analysing 3668 breast cancer and 1692 lung adenocarcinoma samples, we further demonstrate that signalling entropy correlates negatively with survival, outperforming leading clinical gene expression based prognostic tools. Signalling entropy is found to be a general prognostic measure, valid in different breast cancer clinical subgroups, as well as within stage I lung adenocarcinoma. We find that its prognostic power is driven by genes involved in cancer stem cells and treatment resistance. In summary, by approximating both stemness and intra-tumour heterogeneity, signalling entropy provides a powerful prognostic measure across different epithelial cancers.Author Summary: The Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) hypothesis, the idea that a small population of tumour cells have the capacity to seed and grow the tumour, and intra-tumour heterogeneity, the diversity of the cancer cell population within the tumour of an individual patient, have long been considered the basis of potential prognostic indicators in oncology. The identification of CSC based expression signatures and the measurement of intra-tumour heterogeneity, for an assessment of prognostic power in a clinically relevant manner, however, currently presents a challenge. Most proposed methodologies require the collection of new data sets and thus are limited in sample size, making them difficult to validate. Here we consider signalling entropy, a measure of signalling pathway promiscuity, as a means of quantifying the stemness and heterogeneity of any given cancer sample, applicable to publicly available data sets. By considering over 5300 primary tumour samples from both breast and lung cancer patients, we here demonstrate that signalling entropy provides a more robust and general prognostic measure than other leading clinical prognostic indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher R S Banerji & Simone Severini & Carlos Caldas & Andrew E Teschendorff, 2015. "Intra-Tumour Signalling Entropy Determines Clinical Outcome in Breast and Lung Cancer," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:1004115
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004115
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004115&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004115?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alejandra Bruna & Wendy Greenwood & John Le Quesne & Andrew Teschendorff & Diego Miranda-Saavedra & Oscar M. Rueda & Jose L. Sandoval & Ana Tufegdzic Vidakovic & Amel Saadi & Paul Pharoah & John Sting, 2012. "TGFβ induces the formation of tumour-initiating cells in claudinlow breast cancer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Mel Greaves & Carlo C. Maley, 2012. "Clonal evolution in cancer," Nature, Nature, vol. 481(7381), pages 306-313, January.
    3. Tannishtha Reya & Sean J. Morrison & Michael F. Clarke & Irving L. Weissman, 2001. "Stem cells, cancer, and cancer stem cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 414(6859), pages 105-111, November.
    4. Philippe L. Bedard & Aaron R. Hansen & Mark J. Ratain & Lillian L. Siu, 2013. "Tumour heterogeneity in the clinic," Nature, Nature, vol. 501(7467), pages 355-364, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anthony Baptista & Ben D. MacArthur & Christopher R. S. Banerji, 2024. "Charting cellular differentiation trajectories with Ricci flow," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeinab Tavasoli & Parviz Abdolmaleki & Seyed Javad Mowla & Faezeh Ghanati & Amir Sabet Sarvestani, 2009. "Investigation of the effects of static magnetic field on apoptosis in bone marrow stem cells of rat," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 220-224, June.
    2. Lichun Ma & Sophia Heinrich & Limin Wang & Friederike L. Keggenhoff & Subreen Khatib & Marshonna Forgues & Michael Kelly & Stephen M. Hewitt & Areeba Saif & Jonathan M. Hernandez & Donna Mabry & Roman, 2022. "Multiregional single-cell dissection of tumor and immune cells reveals stable lock-and-key features in liver cancer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Siegmund Kimberly D. & Marjoram Paul & Shibata Darryl, 2008. "Modeling DNA Methylation in a Population of Cancer Cells," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, June.
    4. Lida Qiu & Deyong Kang & Chuan Wang & Wenhui Guo & Fangmeng Fu & Qingxiang Wu & Gangqin Xi & Jiajia He & Liqin Zheng & Qingyuan Zhang & Xiaoxia Liao & Lianhuang Li & Jianxin Chen & Haohua Tu, 2022. "Intratumor graph neural network recovers hidden prognostic value of multi-biomarker spatial heterogeneity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Saakian, David B. & Vardanyan, Edgar & Yakushkina, Tatiana, 2020. "Evolutionary model with recombination and randomly changing fitness landscape," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 541(C).
    6. Joseph G. Kern & Andrew M. Tilston-Lunel & Anthony Federico & Boting Ning & Amy Mueller & Grace B. Peppler & Eleni Stampouloglou & Nan Cheng & Randy L. Johnson & Marc E. Lenburg & Jennifer E. Beane & , 2022. "Inactivation of LATS1/2 drives luminal-basal plasticity to initiate basal-like mammary carcinomas," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Qing Chen & Xin Zhang & Wei-Min Li & Yu-Qiang Ji & Hao-Zhe Cao & Pengsheng Zheng, 2014. "Prognostic Value of LGR5 in Colorectal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(9), pages 1-9, September.
    8. Yukinari Haraoka & Yuki Akieda & Yuri Nagai & Chihiro Mogi & Tohru Ishitani, 2022. "Zebrafish imaging reveals TP53 mutation switching oncogene-induced senescence from suppressor to driver in primary tumorigenesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Anna A Schönherz & Julie Støve Bødker & Alexander Schmitz & Rasmus Froberg Brøndum & Lasse Hjort Jakobsen & Anne Stidsholt Roug & Marianne T Severinsen & Tarec C El-Galaly & Paw Jensen & Hans Erik Joh, 2020. "Normal myeloid progenitor cell subset-associated gene signatures for acute myeloid leukaemia subtyping with prognostic impact," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Jose M. Ayuso & María Virumbrales-Muñoz & Joshua M. Lang & David J. Beebe, 2022. "A role for microfluidic systems in precision medicine," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Shravana kumar chinnikatti, 2017. "Cancer and its Genomics in Transformation Era," Cancer Therapy & Oncology International Journal, Juniper Publishers Inc., vol. 7(2), pages 25-26, September.
    12. Duy Pham & Xiao Tan & Brad Balderson & Jun Xu & Laura F. Grice & Sohye Yoon & Emily F. Willis & Minh Tran & Pui Yeng Lam & Arti Raghubar & Priyakshi Kalita-de Croft & Sunil Lakhani & Jana Vukovic & Ma, 2023. "Robust mapping of spatiotemporal trajectories and cell–cell interactions in healthy and diseased tissues," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-25, December.
    13. Jae-Woong Min & Woo Jin Kim & Jeong A Han & Yu-Jin Jung & Kyu-Tae Kim & Woong-Yang Park & Hae-Ock Lee & Sun Shim Choi, 2015. "Identification of Distinct Tumor Subpopulations in Lung Adenocarcinoma via Single-Cell RNA-seq," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    14. Xiaodong Liu & Ke Zhang & Neslihan A. Kaya & Zhe Jia & Dafei Wu & Tingting Chen & Zhiyuan Liu & Sinan Zhu & Axel M. Hillmer & Torsten Wuestefeld & Jin Liu & Yun Shen Chan & Zheng Hu & Liang Ma & Li Ji, 2024. "Tumor phylogeography reveals block-shaped spatial heterogeneity and the mode of evolution in Hepatocellular Carcinoma," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Tin-Lok Wong & Jia-Jian Loh & Shixun Lu & Helen H. N. Yan & Hoi Cheong Siu & Ren Xi & Dessy Chan & Max J. F. Kam & Lei Zhou & Man Tong & John A. Copland & Leilei Chen & Jing-Ping Yun & Suet Yi Leung &, 2023. "ADAR1-mediated RNA editing of SCD1 drives drug resistance and self-renewal in gastric cancer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    16. Caravagna Giulio, 2020. "Measuring evolutionary cancer dynamics from genome sequencing, one patient at a time," Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4-6), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Jolanda Sarno & Pablo Domizi & Yuxuan Liu & Milton Merchant & Christina Bligaard Pedersen & Dorra Jedoui & Astraea Jager & Garry P. Nolan & Giuseppe Gaipa & Sean C. Bendall & Felice-Alessio Bava & Kar, 2023. "Dasatinib overcomes glucocorticoid resistance in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Jing Gao & Xingyu Jiang & Shumin Lei & Wenhao Cheng & Yi Lai & Min Li & Lei Yang & Peifeng Liu & Xiao-hua Chen & Min Huang & Haijun Yu & Huixiong Xu & Zhiai Xu, 2024. "A region-confined PROTAC nanoplatform for spatiotemporally tunable protein degradation and enhanced cancer therapy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Junho Lee & Jin Su Kim & Yangjin Kim, 2021. "Atorvastatin-mediated rescue of cancer-related cognitive changes in combined anticancer therapies," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-28, October.
    20. Deeptha Ishwar & Rupa Haldavnekar & Krishnan Venkatakrishnan & Bo Tan, 2022. "Minimally invasive detection of cancer using metabolic changes in tumor-associated natural killer cells with Oncoimmune probes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pcbi00:1004115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ploscompbiol (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.