Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25242334›Full record

ArticleCell reports2014

Single-cell RNA sequencing identifies extracellular matrix gene expression by pancreatic circulating tumor cells.

David T Ting, Ben S Wittner, Matteo Ligorio, Nicole Vincent Jordan, Ajay M Shah, David T Miyamoto, Nicola Aceto, Francesca Bersani, Brian W Brannigan, Kristina Xega and 18 more

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Cell reports, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 301 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
301citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
20.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

301 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 539 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Circulating tumour cells in patients with lung cancer universally indicate poor prognosis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2022
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Review
  4. Tumor FAK supports fibrillar collagen expression in ovarian cancer ascites.Matrix biology : journal of the International Society for Matrix Biology · 2026
    Article
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  16. EMT and cancer: what clinicians should know.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2025
    Review
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  19. Article
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241 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

28 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

David T TingMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Ben S WittnerMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Matteo LigorioMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Health Sciences, University of Genoa, 16126 Genoa, Italy.
Nicole Vincent JordanMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Ajay M ShahCenter for Engineering in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
David T MiyamotoMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Nicola AcetoMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Francesca BersaniMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Brian W BranniganMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Kristina XegaMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Jordan C CicilianoMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Huili ZhuMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Olivia C MacKenzieMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Julie TrautweinMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Kshitij S AroraMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Mohammad ShahidMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Haley L EllisMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Na QuMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Nabeel BardeesyMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Miguel N RiveraMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Vikram DeshpandeMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Cristina R FerroneMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Ravi KapurCenter for Engineering in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Sridhar RamaswamyMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Toshi ShiodaMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Mehmet TonerCenter for Engineering in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Shyamala MaheswaranMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Electronic address: maheswaran@helix.mgh.harvard.edu.
Daniel A HaberMassachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA. Electronic address: haber@helix.mgh.harvard.edu.
Harvard University · USMassachusetts General Hospital · USUniversity of Genoa · IT

Funding

Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Consortium Career Development Program in Clinical OncologyK12CA087723 · NCI · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI David Tsai Ting · 2002 to 2026
$17.9M
Modeling Metastasis and Acquired Drug Resistance Using Circulating Tumor CellsR01CA129933 · NCI · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI Daniel A. Haber · 2008 to 2026
$7.5M
Point-of-Care Microfluidics in Lung CancerR01EB008047 · NIBIB · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · PI TONER, MEHMET · 2007 to 2009
$3.4M
Howard Hughes Medical InstituteNCI NIH HHS K12 CA087723NCI NIH HHS K12CA087723-11A1NCI NIH HHS NCI 2R01CA129933NCI NIH HHS R01 CA129933NIBIB NIH HHS 5R01EB008047NIBIB NIH HHS R01 EB008047
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are shed from primary tumors into the bloodstream, mediating the hematogenous spread of cancer to distant organs. To define their composition, we compared genome-wide expression profiles of CTCs with matched primary tumors in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, isolating individual CTCs using epitope-independent microfluidic capture, followed by single-cell RNA sequencing. CTCs clustered separately from primary tumors and tumor-derived cell lines, showing low-proliferative signatures, enrichment for the stem-cell-associated gene Aldh1a2, biphenotypic expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers, and expression of Igfbp5, a gene transcript enriched at the epithelial-stromal interface. Mouse as well as human pancreatic CTCs exhibit a very high expression of stromal-derived extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, including SPARC, whose knockdown in cancer cells suppresses cell migration and invasiveness. The aberrant expression by CTCs of stromal ECM genes points to their contribution of microenvironmental signals for the spread of cancer to distant organs.

Indexed as

Gene Expression Regulation, NeoplasticAldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 FamilyAnimalsCarrier ProteinsCell MovementExtracellular MatrixHumansMiceNeoplastic Cells, CirculatingOsteonectinPancreatic NeoplasmsRetinal DehydrogenaseRNA InterferenceRNA, Small InterferingSequence Analysis, RNATumor Cells, CulturedAldehyde Dehydrogenase 1 FamilyALDH1A2 protein, humanCarrier ProteinsIGFBP5-interacting protein, humanOsteonectinRetinal DehydrogenaseRNA, Small Interfering

Identifiers

PMID25242334
PMCPMC4230325
OpenAlexW1967489571

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.