Single-Cell Dissection of Malignant Cell Heterogeneity Reveals Functional Programs and Clinically Relevant Subtypes in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Three distinct cancer subtypes in throat tumors predict who survives best and responds to immunotherapy, enabling personalized treatment selection.
Integration of 181,003 HNSCC single cells from 58 patients revealed three molecular subtypes with distinct survival outcomes and ICI response profiles; the immune-enriched MS-2 subtype with HPV positivity had best prognosis and ICI sensitivity. A derived 25-gene MCScore offered prognostic and predictive value, potentially enabling precision immunotherapy selection in HNSCC.
What the study was
- Study design
- Integrated single-cell RNA-seq meta-analysis with bulk RNA-seq projection and spatial analysis
- Population
- HNSCC patients (58 patients, 181,003 cells integrated; bulk validation datasets)
- Sample size
- 58
- Category
- Genomics/Precision Medicine
- Maturity
- Exploratory
- Journal
- IUBMB Life
Why it surfaced
Large-scale scRNA-seq integration with clinical bulk validation; 25-gene ICI response score clinically actionable for HNSCC; deferred from 2026-05-03 run.
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