A Spatial Atlas of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Reveals Lineage-Specific Vulnerabilities and Immune Architecture.

A spatial atlas of muscle-invasive bladder cancer uncovers lineage-specific vulnerabilities and immune structures across 22 tumors.

• Why it matters: Understanding the spatial organization of tumor states and microenvironments is crucial for improving targeted therapies and patient outcomes, as current molecular subtyping lacks this context.
• What they did: Researchers integrated spatial transcriptomics, bulk RNA, and whole-exome sequencing data to map tumor heterogeneity, identifying a luminal-to-basal axis and lineage-specific features in over 3,000 tumors.
• The result: Findings reveal distinct vulnerabilities, such as FGFR3 and NECTIN4 in luminal cores and EGFR signaling in basal margins, along with immune architecture differences, guiding personalized treatment strategies.