While all cells within an organism share a similar genome, they exhibit an enormous amount of phenotypic and functional diversity. While this diversity is partly due to internal factors such as the transcriptome and epigenome defining cellular “programs”, even identical cell types exhibit different tissue-specific programs, suggesting cell-external factors contributing to functional diversity. Indeed, cells do not exist in a vacuum, instead constantly communicating and interacting with their surrounding environment. Recent evidence suggests that this communication plays a role in cancer progression and treatment resistance as well, however, the extent of this contribution is unknown. We are developing new methods to better identify cell-cell communication in cancer, ultimately to disrupt cancer-promoting factors.