Deriving Primary Cancer Cell Cultures for Personalized Therapy

Abstract

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the world, accounting for one out of six deaths. Consequently, there is an urgent need for new and more effective therapeutic options as well as drug screening methods. Immortal, "stable" cancer cell lines have been employed since the past century to assess drug response but face several disadvantages. They often accumulate new genetic aberrations due to long-term culture and lack the indisputable heterogeneity of solid tumors, therefore, compromising the recapitulation of molecular features from parental tumors. Primary cancer cells have emerged as an attractive alternative to commercial cell lines since they can preserve such properties more closely. Here, we provide an overview of the basic concepts underlying generation and characterization of primary cell cultures from tumor samples. We emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of using these types of cancer cell cultures, and we make a comparison with other types of cultures used for personalized therapy. Finally, we consider the use of primary cancer cell cultures in personalized therapy as a means to improve drug response prediction and therapeutic outcomes.