Tumor heterogeneity poses significant challenges for cancer treatment:
- Drug Resistance: Different subclones within a tumor may respond differently to treatments, leading to partial responses or resistance. This necessitates the use of combination therapies or personalized medicine. - Diagnosis and Prognosis: Heterogeneity can complicate the accurate diagnosis and prognostic assessment, as sampling from a single region of a tumor might not reflect its full diversity. - Therapeutic Targeting: Identifying and targeting all relevant subclones within a heterogeneous tumor is challenging, requiring advanced techniques and approaches.
