scMalignantFinder: Distinguishing malignant cells in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics using cancer signatures

scMalignantFinder is a Python package for identifying malignant cells in cancer single-cell RNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics data. It was trained on more than 400,000 high-quality single-cell transcriptomes and leverages curated pan-cancer gene signatures to distinguish malignant cells from their normal counterparts. The package also provides downstream utilities for malignant region identification in spatial data and cancer cell state analysis using curated gene sets.

Contents

• Latest updates
• Installation
• Data preparation
• User guidance
  • Identify malignant cells from scRNA-seq data
  • Identify malignant regions from spatial transcriptomics
  • Analyze cancer cell states using curated gene sets

Latest updates

Version 1.1.9 (2025-05-27)

• Added a new module for downstream cancer cell state analysis.

Version 1.1.6 (2025-04-26)

• Expanded input support for test data to include .txt, .tsv, .csv, and their compressed .gz versions.

Version 1.1.5 (2025-04-20)

• Added malignant region identification for spatial transcriptomics data using a clustering-based strategy.

Version 1.0.5 (2025-01-11)

• Added support for using either an .h5ad file path or an AnnData object as test input.

Version 1.0.0 (2024-12-24)

• Introduced malignancy probability output.

Installation

We recommend installing scMalignantFinder in a dedicated conda environment.

Option A: Create an environment manually and install from PyPI (recommended)

1. Create and activate a conda environment:

conda create -n scmalignant python=3.10.10
conda activate scmalignant

2. Install scMalignantFinder from PyPI:

pip install scMalignantFinder

Option B: Install with environment.yml

If you prefer, you can create the conda environment directly from the provided environment.yml file:

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate scmalignant

Data preparation

All resources required for scMalignantFinder have been deposited on Zenodo for stable long-term access, including pretrained models, training data, example test datasets, and feature files.

Required resources for pretrained inference

Download the following files and place them in the same directory:

• Pretrained model: model.joblib
• Ordered feature list: ordered_feature.tsv

Example directory structure:

pretrained_model/
├── model.joblib
└── ordered_feature.tsv

Resources for model training

If you would like to train a model from scratch, the following files are available:

1. Training data: combine_training.h5ad
2. Feature list: combined_tumor_up_down_degs.txt

You may also use your own training dataset and feature list if you want to build a custom model.

Example test datasets

The following example datasets are provided for quick testing:

• Malignant cells from a cancer cell line: test_cancerCellLine.h5ad
• Normal epithelial cells from healthy tissue: test_TabulaSapiens.h5ad

Resource for spatial region identification

For malignant region identification in spatial transcriptomics data, the malignant cell gene signature file is available here:

• sc_malignant_deg.gmt

You may also provide your own gene signature file, as long as it follows the same .gmt format.

User guidance

Identify malignant cells from scRNA-seq data

scMalignantFinder supports two usage modes:

1. Use a pretrained model (recommended for most users)
2. Train a model from scratch

For most users, the pretrained model is the simplest and most convenient option.

Input requirements

test_input can be:

• an AnnData object
• a path to a .h5ad file
• a path to a tab-delimited .txt or .tsv file
• a path to a comma-delimited .csv file
• gzipped versions of the above text files (.txt.gz, .tsv.gz, .csv.gz)

For text-based files:

• rows must correspond to gene symbols
• columns must correspond to cell barcodes

Option 1: Use a pretrained model (recommended)

Prepare a directory containing:

• model.joblib
• ordered_feature.tsv

For example:

pretrained_model/
├── model.joblib
└── ordered_feature.tsv

Then run:

from scMalignantFinder import classifier

model = classifier.scMalignantFinder(
    test_input="path/to/test_data.h5ad",
    pretrain_dir="path/to/pretrained_model",
    norm_type=True,
    n_thread=1
)

model.load()
result_adata = model.predict()

Option 2: Train a model from scratch

Use this mode only if you want to train your own classifier.

from scMalignantFinder import classifier

model = classifier.scMalignantFinder(
    test_input="path/to/test_data.h5ad",
    train_h5ad_path="path/to/train_data.h5ad",
    feature_path="path/to/combined_tumor_up_down_degs.txt",
    model_method="LogisticRegression",
    norm_type=True,
    n_thread=1
)

model.load()
result_adata = model.predict()

If training from scratch, the training .h5ad file must contain labels in:

adata.obs["Raw_annotation"]

Supported labels are:

• "Normal"
• "Malignant"
• "Tumor"

Both "Malignant" and "Tumor" are treated as malignant during training.

Parameter notes

• pretrain_dir: directory containing model.joblib and ordered_feature.tsv
• train_h5ad_path: required only when training from scratch
• feature_path: required only when training from scratch
• model_method: one of "LogisticRegression", "RandomForest", or "XGBoost"
• norm_type=True: applies sc.pp.normalize_total(adata, target_sum=1e4) to the input data
• norm_type=False: skips normalization
• n_thread: number of threads used by the classifier
• use_raw=True: uses adata.raw.X as input, if available

View results

After prediction, two columns are added to result_adata.obs:

• scMalignantFinder_prediction: predicted label ("Normal" or "Malignant")
• malignancy_probability: predicted probability of being malignant

print(result_adata.obs["scMalignantFinder_prediction"].head())

Example output:

KUL01-T_AAACCTGGTCTTTCAT    Malignant
KUL01-T_AAACGGGTCGGTTAAC    Malignant
KUL01-T_AAAGATGGTATAGGGC    Normal
KUL01-T_AAAGATGGTGGCCCTA    Malignant
KUL01-T_AAAGCAAGTAAACACA    Malignant
Name: scMalignantFinder_prediction, dtype: category
Categories (2, object): ['Normal', 'Malignant']

print(result_adata.obs["malignancy_probability"].head())

Example output:

KUL01-T_AAACCTGGTCTTTCAT    0.985780
KUL01-T_AAACGGGTCGGTTAAC    0.789680
KUL01-T_AAAGATGGTATAGGGC    0.243564
KUL01-T_AAAGATGGTGGCCCTA    0.879600
KUL01-T_AAAGCAAGTAAACACA    0.659800
Name: malignancy_probability, dtype: float64

Identify malignant regions from spatial transcriptomics

Based on the malignancy probability generated in the previous step, scMalignantFinder can further identify malignant regions in spatial transcriptomics data by integrating transcriptomic signatures and image-derived features.

A typical workflow is:

1. Calculate AUCell scores using a malignant gene signature
2. Extract image-based features from the spatial image
3. Integrate these features to identify malignant regions

from scMalignantFinder import spatial, utils

# Step 1: Calculate AUCell scores using scRNA-seq-derived gene sets
sc_gmt = "./model/sc_malignant_deg.gmt"
adata = utils.aucell_cal(adata, sc_gmt)

# Step 2: Extract image-based features
adata = spatial.image_cal(adata)

# Step 3: Integrate multi-modal features to identify malignant regions
adata = spatial.region_identification(
    adata,
    features=["malignancy_probability", "Malignant_up", "image_score"],
    nclus=3,
    define_feature="Malignant_up",
    spatial_nn=True
)

Key arguments

• features: columns in adata.obs used for clustering
• nclus: number of clusters to define during hierarchical clustering
• define_feature: feature used to determine which cluster corresponds to malignant regions
• spatial_nn=True: refines region labels using spatial neighborhood information

View results

print(adata.obs[["cluster", "region_prediction"]].head())

Example output:

                   cluster region_prediction
AAACAAGTATCTCCCA-1       0            Normal
AAACACCAATAACTGC-1       1         Malignant
AAACAGAGCGACTCCT-1       2            Normal
AAACAGGGTCTATATT-1       0            Normal
AAACAGTGTTCCTGGG-1       1         Malignant

Analyze cancer cell states using curated gene sets

To support downstream functional interpretation, scMalignantFinder includes access to 67 curated cancer cell state gene sets collected from a pan-cancer study. These gene sets capture a broad range of cancer-associated cellular programs, including cell cycle, EMT, immune evasion, and hypoxia.

You can quantify the enrichment of these gene sets in individual cells using AUCell scoring:

from scMalignantFinder import utils

# Path to the curated pan-cancer gene sets
pan_cancer_gene_sets = "/path/to/model/Malignant_MPs.Gavish_2023.gmt"

# Compute AUCell scores for each gene set
adata = utils.aucell_cal(adata, pan_cancer_gene_sets, norm_type=False)

# View results
print(adata.obs.loc[:, adata.obs.columns.str.startswith("MP")].iloc[:5, :3])

Example output:

                MP1 Cell Cycle - G2/M  MP2 Cell Cycle - G1/S  MP3 Cell Cylce HMG-rich
KUL01-T_AAACCT               0.045819               0.000000                  0.306887
KUL01-T_AAACGG               0.155027               0.078003                  0.227548
KUL01-T_AAAGAT               0.000000               0.000000                  0.293480
KUL01-T_AAAGAG               0.000000               0.000000                  0.239118
KUL01-T_AAAGCA               0.068728               0.000000                  0.272176

Citation

If you use scMalignantFinder in your research, please cite:

Yu, Qiaoni, Yuan-Yuan Li, and Yunqin Chen. scMalignantFinder distinguishes malignant cells in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics by leveraging cancer signatures. Communications Biology, 2025.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07942-y

@article{yu2025scmalignantfinder,
  title={scMalignantFinder distinguishes malignant cells in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics by leveraging cancer signatures},
  author={Yu, Qiaoni and Li, Yuan-Yuan and Chen, Yunqin},
  journal={Communications Biology},
  volume={8},
  number={1},
  pages={504},
  year={2025},
  publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK London}
}