Functional characteristics, applications, and limitations of patient-derived tumor organoids in cancer modeling and therapeutic discovery. (IMAGE)
Caption
Functional characteristics, applications, and limitations of patient-derived tumor organoids in cancer modeling and therapeutic discovery. This figure illustrates the central role of tumor organoids in patient-specific cancer research. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) established from gastrointestinal, pulmonary, breast, and other tumor types simulate key aspects of the tumor microenvironment (TME), enabling applications in drug screening, neoantigen identification, resistance mechanism analysis, and cancer progression modeling. Organoids preserve tumor heterogeneity and can be profiled using next-generation sequencing (NGS), transcriptomics, and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers. Co-culturing tumor organoids with stromal and immune cells allows reconstitution of cellular interactions in the TME. Advantages of the system include personalized disease modeling, reduction in experimental variability, and compatibility with high-throughput platforms. However, high cultivation costs, lack of vascularization, limited immune component integration, and technical challenges in maintaining long-term culture stability continue to be system limitations. Incorporating immune and stromal cells can help mitigate these limitations. This model provides a powerful tool for linking patient-derived tumor biology with translational therapeutic development. Created with BioRender.com.
Credit
Cancer Biology & Medicine
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