Identifying Early and Late Hallmarks of Plasticity in Neuroendocrine Transformation of Lung Cancer at Single-Cell Level

Lineage plasticity is the ability for a cell to change its phenotypic state under evolutionary pressure. This process mediates acquired resistance to molecularly targeted therapies in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), through transformation to small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an aggressive cancer type that classically displays neuroendocrine (NE) histology. This transformed SCLC has worse clinical outcomes than either its LUAD or de novo SCLC counterparts, with less than one-year overall survival following transformation.