Spatial transcriptomics in pancreatic cancer: Advances, prospects and challenges

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest malignancies with an overall 5-year survival rate of 13%. This dismal fact can be partly attributed to currently limited understanding of tumor heterogeneity and immune microenvironment. Traditional bulk-sequencing techniques overlook the diversity of tumor cells, while single-cell sequencing disorganizes the position localizing of cells in tumor microenvironment. The advent of spatial transcriptomics (ST) presents a novel solution by integrating location and whole transcript expression information. This technology allows for detailed observation of spatio-temporal changes across various cell subtypes within the pancreatic tumor microenvironment, providing insights into their potential functions. This review offers an overview of recent studies implementing ST in pancreatic cancer research, highlighting its instrumental role in investigating the heterogeneity and functions of tumor cells, stromal cells, and immune cells. On the basis, we also prospected and summarized the clinical application scenarios, technical limitations and challenges of ST technology in pancreatic cancer.