Tumor organoid models in precision medicine and investigating cancer-stromal interactions
Open accessAbstract
Tumor development and progression require chemical and mechanical cues derived from cellular and non-cellular components in the tumor microenvironment, including the extracellular matrix (ECM), cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), endothelial cells, and immune cells. Therefore, it is crucial to develop tissue culture models that can mimic in vivo cancer cell-ECM and cancer-stromal cell interactions. Three-dimensional (3D) tumor culture models have been widely utilized to study cancer development and progression. A recent advance in 3D culture is the development of patient-derived tumor organoid (PDO) models from primary human cancer tissue. PDOs maintain the heterogeneity of the primary tumor, which makes them more relevant for identifying therapeutic targets and verifying drug response. Other significant advances include development of 3D co-culture assays to investigate cell-cell interactions and tissue/organ morphogenesis, and microfluidic technology that can be integrated into 3D culture to mimic vasculature and blood flow. These advances offer spatial and temporal insights into cancer cell-stromal interactions and represent novel techniques to study tumor progression and drug response. Here, we summarize the recent progress in 3D culture and tumor organoid models, and discuss future directions and the potential of utilizing these models to study cancer-stromal interactions and direct personalized treatment.
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Organoids have been deployed to identify therapeutic leads in a number of tumors, including rare cancers that are understudied and poorly characterized at the molecular level.
“Organoids are ideally suited for FPM due to their ease of establishment, similarity with the tissue of origin and tractability158,167 and have been deployed to identify therapeutic leads in a number of tumors168, including rare cancers that tend to be understudied and poorly characterized at the molecular level16,151,169,170.”
From Organoids (2022) · cites this paper as [170]
The section “PDO models in drug testing and personalized treatment” reports organoid drug screening in several tumor types and identifies a potential therapeutic agent from pancreatic tumor organoids. It does not establish that therapeutic leads were identified in rare cancers, or describe those cancers as understudied and poorly characterized molecularly. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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References 118 · Cited by 134
- Authors
- Xu, R., Zhou, X., Wang, S., & Trinkle, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Kentucky (US)
- Corresponding author
- Xu, Ren
- Venue
- Pharmacology & Therapeutics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-02
- Volume
- 218
- Pages
- 107668
- ISSN
- 0163-7258 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7855432
- OpenAlex
- W3080612021
- Cited by
- 134
- References
- 118
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 1.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Pharmacology & Therapeutics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (1R01CA207772, 1R01CA215095 1)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Cells and Metastasis
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular Mechanics and Interactions
- Keywords
- tumor organoids, patient-derived tumor organoids, tumor microenvironment, cancer-associated fibroblasts, extracellular matrix, 3D co-culture, microfluidic organoids, precision medicine, drug response, tumor progression, personalized treatment
- MeSH terms
- Cell Communication, Humans, Models, Biological, Neoplasms, Organoids, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Stromal Cells, Precision Medicine, Tumor Microenvironment
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