An overview of multiomics: a powerful tool applied in cancer molecular subtyping for cancer therapy

Abstract

During the process of carcinogenesis and tumor progression, various molecular alternations occur in different omics levels. In recent years, multiomics approaches including genomics, epigenetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, single-cell omics, and spatial omics have been applied in mapping diverse omics profiles of cancers. The development of high-throughput technologies such as sequencing and mass spectrometry has revealed different omics levels of tumor cells or tissues separately. While focusing on a single omics level results in a lack of accuracy, joining multiple omics approaches together undoubtedly benefits accurate molecular subtyping and precision medicine for cancer patients. With the deepening of tumor research in recent years, taking pathological classification as the only criterion of diagnosis and predicting prognosis and treatment response is found to be not accurate enough. Therefore, identifying precise molecular subtypes by exploring the molecular alternations during tumor occurrence and development is of vital importance. The review provides an overview of the advanced technologies and recent progress in multiomics applied in cancer molecular subtyping and detailedly explains the application of multiomics in identifying cancer driver genes and metastasis-related genes, exploring tumor microenvironment, and selecting liquid biopsy biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets.