Patient-derived organoids in hepatobiliary pancreatic cancer research: Their uses and limitations

Abstract

In this letter, we discuss the highlights of the paper by Hu et al, including how patient-derived organoids may be beneficial to hepatobiliary pancreatic research. The article provides a review of how organoids can be used in drug sensitivity testing; looking at ways in which successful organoids are created. The literature included in the review revealed heterogeneity in organoid establishment including some differences between organoids from resected tumours compared with liquid biopsies. Additional research is required in creating organoids from liquid biopsies and optimizing these techniques for widespread clinical practice. The article raises awareness of limitations of organoids with suggestions of how co-culture or microfluid platforms may help to simulate the tumour microenvironment for better model fidelity. The article provides a comprehensive review of how organoids are being used in drug testing and ideas about how to harvest or produce these in future.

Keywords: Patient-derived organoids; Organ-on-a-chip; Sensitivity testing; Co-cultures; Tumour microenvironment

Core Tip: The development of organoid models is becoming an exciting field in in-vitro drug testing for chemotherapy for aggressive cancers, such as hepatobiliary pancreatic. The most reliable source of organoid establishment is from resected tumour; however liquid biopsies are becoming more common. There is a large amount of heterogeneity in the way organoids are cultured and there are drawbacks of this technique, such as the lack of fidelity in creating the tumour microenvironment and other variables that affect tumour growth.