Whole-genome single-cell copy number profiling from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples

A substantial proportion of tumors consist of genotypically distinct subpopulations of cancer cells. This intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity poses a significant challenge for the implementation of precision medicine. Single-cell genomics constitutes a powerful approach to resolve complex mixtures of cancer cells by tracing cell lineages and discovering cryptic genetic variations that would otherwise be obscured in tumor bulk analyses. Given the chemical alterations that result from formalin fixation, single-cell genomic approaches have largely remained limited to fresh/frozen specimens. Here we describe the development and validation of a robust and accurate methodology to perform whole-genome copy-number profiling of single nuclei obtained from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded clinical tumor samples. We applied the single-cell sequencing approach described here to study the progression from in situ to invasive breast cancer, which revealed that ductal carcinomas in situ display intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity at diagnosis and that these lesions may progress to invasive breast cancer through a variety of evolutionary processes.