ABOVE: Brightfield microscopy image of patient-derived organoids in culture
S.N. OOFT AND M. MERTZ
Researchers have developed a method of testing 3-D tissue cultures called organoids from colorectal cancer patients’ tumors for whether the cancer will respond to chemotherapy. Emile Voest, a professor of oncology and the medical director of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and colleagues published a paper in Science Translational Medicine yesterday (October 9) on their findings. The team procured tumor biopsies from 61 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and used the samples to generate organoids, which were then treated with different chemotherapy drugs, either irinotecan or 5-fluorouracil combined with irinotecan or oxaliplatin.
The organoid response to irinotecan, measured by organized growth rates, correctly predicted how 80 percent of the patients reacted to the drug. The assay could not predict the 5-fluorouracil treatments.
These findings...
S.N. Ooft et al., “Patient-derived organoids can predict response to chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients,” Sci Transl Med, doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aay2574, 2019.
Emily Makowski is an intern at The Scientist. Email her at emakowski@the-scientist.com.
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