By mapping cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) markers to the cells in space, the majority of FB in the ROI highly expressed the known CAF marker genes (e.g., VIM, FAP, POSTIN, and SPARC) (Fig. 6d), hinting at the transformation of FB to CAFs induced by the adjacent TSKs and conversely supporting the stemness of TSKs via direct cell–cell communication in space (Supplementary Fig. 7b). Here, TSKS is linked to cancer.