Unveiling a novel cancer hallmark by evaluation of neural infiltration in cancer.

ABSTRACT: Cancer cells acquire necessary functional capabilities for malignancy through the influence of the nervous system. We evaluate the extent of neural infiltration within the tumor microenvironment (TME) across multiple cancer types, highlighting its role as a cancer hallmark. We identify cancer-related neural genes using 40 bulk RNA-seq datasets across 10 cancer types, developing a predictive score for cancer-related neural infiltration (C-Neural score). Cancer samples with elevated C-Neural scores exhibit perineural invasion, recurrence, metastasis, higher stage or grade, or poor prognosis. Epithelial cells show the highest C-Neural scores among all cell types in 55 single-cell RNA sequencing datasets. The epithelial cells with high C-Neural scores (epi-highCNs) characterized by increased c

SUBMITTER: Dong Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11886572 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature