Abstract Introduction: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine malignancy with a 5-year survival rate of only 7%. Despite ongoing advances, most patients derive limited benefit from existing therapies, underscoring the need to better understand mechanisms of SCLC progression and resistance. Cell-cell communication (CCC) through ligand-receptor (LR) interactions has been studied to have a key role in regulating process that influence tumor cell plasticity and spatial organization. We hypothesize that tumor-tumor CCC mediates heterogeneity within SCLC and contributes to its aggressive phenotype. Method: We generated spatial transcriptomic profiles from two SCLC circulating tumor cell-derived xenograft (CDX) samples at single-cell resolution using VisiumHD. Hematoxylin and eosin (H Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 3963.
Gao et al. (2026) studied this question.