1. Increasingly detailed genomic data from successive generations of DNA sequencing technology reveal the clonal structure of cancer cell populations. Early techniques, such as karyotyping, allowed recognition of large chromosomal changes, while single base pair sequencing showed the primary sequence of these and other mutations. Second- and third-generation technologies, such as pyrosequencing and bridge amplification ("next-gen sequencing" where every nucleotide base-pair is individually digitally counted by changes in red, blue or green fluorescence), allow "deep" sequencing to detect rare clones (represented in different colors here to show their outgrowth and evolution from previous clones) within tumor cell populations, and even parallel sequencing of single cancer cell clones.
Source: Heterogeneity in Cancer: The "Cancer Stem Cell" Hypothesis, The Basic Science of Oncology, 5e
Citation: Tannock IF, Hill RP, Bristow RG, Harrington L. The Basic Science of Oncology, 5e; 2016 Available at: Accessed: November 03, 2017
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