Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41997105›Full record

ArticleCancer discovery2026

Spatial Mapping of the Precancer-to-Cancer Transition in Breast and Prostate.

Erik Storrs, Chia-Kuei Mo, Wen-Hung Chou, Gaurav Bhatt, Siqi Chen, Xiyi Wei, Andrew Houston, Alla Karpova, Reyka G Jayasinghe, Preet Lal and 44 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Cancer discovery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. The Next Frontier in Quantitative Co-Clinical Imaging to Advance Functional Precision Oncology.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026
    Article
  3. Multimodal spatial alignment and morphology mapping with MOSAICField.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
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

54 authors.

Erik StorrsDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-8041-0864
Chia-Kuei MoDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0005-7056-0841
Wen-Hung ChouDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-1941-3393
Gaurav BhattDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-0552-9694
Siqi ChenDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-9670-3805
Xiyi WeiDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-0166-3194
Andrew HoustonDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-5669-7335
Alla KarpovaDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-0467-0215
Reyka G JayasingheDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-2368-4890
Preet LalDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0005-8258-3688
Peter BayguinovCenter for Cellular Imaging, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-5365-7490
John M HerndonSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-8378-9654
Xiang LiDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-1199-7152
Faria Anjum SiminDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0008-3172-0349
Xiangwei FangDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0004-8061-7680
Michael C WendlDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-5694-2668
Xinhao LiuDepartment of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.ORCID 0009-0008-9991-4502
Hongyu ZhengDepartment of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.ORCID 0000-0002-7668-2090
Sherri R DaviesDepartment of Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-7141-8354
Julia T WangDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-2233-8841
Andrew ShinkleDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-2369-9446
Robert S FultonMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0006-6820-3404
Jennifer PonceMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0001-7648-6209
Michael HeinzMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0006-8765-7073
Richard HeadMcDonnell Genome Institute, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-6865-1542
De ChenCenter for Cellular Imaging, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0007-3932-2460
Yuting ZhaoDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0009-0002-1973-5640
David FenyoInstitute for Systems Genetics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York.ORCID 0000-0001-5049-3825
Yang E LiDepartment of Neurosurgery and Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-6997-6018
Cynthia X MaDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-8156-7492
Rebecca AftSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-8569-7131
Melissa A ReimersSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-5167-3630
Albert H KimSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-1751-8493
Sidharth V PuramDepartment of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-3543-889X
James A J FitzpatrickCenter for Cellular Imaging, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-7907-3602
Kooresh I ShoghiDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-3204-457X
R Sherburne FigenshauDepartment of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine, Reno, Nevada.ORCID 0000-0003-0423-2792
Foluso O AdemuyiwaDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-6766-2258
Tao JuDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-1848-1012
Graham A ColditzSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-7307-0291
Bettina F DrakeSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-9340-5848
Gary J PattiDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-3748-6193
Stephen T OhDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-8564-5400
Eric H KimDepartment of Physiology and Cell Biology, University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine, Reno, Nevada.ORCID 0000-0002-0284-8342
William E GillandersSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-0465-3071
John A OlsonDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-7759-8317
Milan G ChhedaDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-8282-9098
Cody WeimholtDepartment of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-2926-343X
Deborah J VeisDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-7101-5582
Benjamin J RaphaelDepartment of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.ORCID 0000-0003-1274-048X
Ryan C FieldsSiteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0001-6176-8943
Russell K PachynskiDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-8966-7631
Feng ChenDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0002-2307-7954
Li DingDepartment of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri.ORCID 0000-0003-1517-2975

Funding

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HUMAN TUMOR ATLAS RESEARCH CENTERU2CCA233303 · NCI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI DING, LI, FIELDS, RYAN C · 2018 to 2023
$9.7M
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY CO-CLINICAL IMAGING RESEARCH RESOURCEU24CA209837 · NCI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI Li Ding, Shunqiang Li · 2017 to 2026
$6.3M
Human Prostate Tumor Atlas CenterU01CA294532 · NCI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI FENG CHEN, Li Ding · 2024 to 2026
$5.3M
Comprehensive and Robust Tools for Analysis of Tumor Heterogeneity and EvolutionU24CA248453 · NCI · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · PI Benjamin Raphael · 2020 to 2026
$4.7M
Pathogenic Variant Discovery Across a Broad Spectrum of Human DiseasesR01HG009711 · NHGRI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI CHEN, FENG, DING, LI · 2017 to 2020
$2.2M
Deep Discovery and Clinical Interpretation of Germline and Somatic Cancer DriversU24CA211006 · NCI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI DING, LI, GOVINDAN, RAMASWAMY · 2016 to 2020
$1.8M
Imaging the native 3D architecture of pancreatic and breast tumor patient tissue at single-cell resolutionUH2CA263954 · NCI · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI JU, TAO, OH, STEPHEN TRACY · 2021 to 2022
$721k
Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center (SCC)Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital (FBJH)National Cancer Institute (NCI) U01CA294532National Cancer Institute (NCI) UH2CA263954National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01HG009711National Institutes of Health (NIH) U24CA211006National Institutes of Health (NIH) U2CCA233303NCI NIH HHS U01 CA294532NCI NIH HHS U24 CA209837NCI NIH HHS U24 CA211006NCI NIH HHS U24 CA248453NCI NIH HHS U2C CA233303NCI NIH HHS UH2 CA263954NHGRI NIH HHS R01 HG009711
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Breast and prostate cancers are both hormone-driven adenocarcinomas that undergo analogous invasion programs. Using lightsheet microscopy on intact tumors, we identified transitional junctions between precancerous and invasive regions. We then developed a multimodal serial-section workflow integrating volumetric reconstruction with spatial transcriptomics. Analysis of 319 spatial assays from 51 cases revealed gene expression features and novel structural insights defining the shift from precancer to invasive disease. In breast cancer, loss of MGP and PLAT was associated with invasive transition and promoted tumorigenesis in functional assays. In prostate cancer, GDF15, ALDH1A3, ANPEP, and FASN were upregulated along invasive progression, and their knockdown in PC-3 cells suppressed proliferation and migration. Enrichment of tumor-associated macrophages (SPP1+ and MS4A6A+) along non-triple-negative breast cancer breast cancer transitions highlights immune involvement as a potential driver of invasiveness. SIGNIFICANCE: Our method of defining precise spatial locations of invasive transition allows for the direct interrogation of transition drivers, presenting new therapeutic targets for the two most prevalent cancers and providing a framework for studying spatially defined mechanisms of tumor progression. See related commentary by Jing and Li, p. 1720.

Indexed as

Breast NeoplasmsPrecancerous ConditionsProstatic NeoplasmsDisease ProgressionFemaleGene Expression Regulation, NeoplasticHumansMaleSpatial Transcriptomics

Identifiers

PMID41997105
PMCPMC13531001

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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.