Human Tumor Atlases Provide Important Insights into How Cancer Tumors Develop and Spread

Posted onNovember 21st, 2024byDr. Monica M. Bertagnolli

In 2018, NIHs National Cancer Institute launched a research initiative called theHuman Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN)to construct detailed, three-dimensional maps of human tumors including their underlying cellular, molecular, and spatial features to better understand cancer biology. Im pleased to share progress toward this goal through an impressivecollectionof HTAN studies that elucidate how tumors of various types develop, respond to treatment, and recur.

Several of these studies, reported in theNatureportfolio of journals, offer key insights into the role of a tumors immediate surroundings and the immune system in encouraging cancers spread and resistance to treatment. They map the molecular and cellular features underlying the transformation of precancerous lesions into cancerous tumors and other important cancer transitions. Other studies describe innovative technologies and analytical tools that may be applied to the new findings, as well as many other datasets and studies.