The application of organoids in treatment decision-making for digestive system cancers: progress and challenges

IF 33.9 1区医学 Q1 BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Molecular Cancer Pub Date : 2025-08-25 DOI:10.1186/s12943-025-02429-0

Yufei Wang, Limin Zhang, Louis Zizhao Wang, Yang Cao, Lulu Huang, Gautam Sethi, Xiaoguang Chen, Lingzhi Wang, Boon-Cher Goh

{"title":"The application of organoids in treatment decision-making for digestive system cancers: progress and challenges","authors":"Yufei Wang, Limin Zhang, Louis Zizhao Wang, Yang Cao, Lulu Huang, Gautam Sethi, Xiaoguang Chen, Lingzhi Wang, Boon-Cher Goh","doi":"10.1186/s12943-025-02429-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Digestive system cancers—including gastric, liver, colorectal, esophageal, and pancreatic malignancies—remain leading causes of cancer death, with treatment resistance posing major challenges in advanced disease. Patient-derived cancer organoids (PDCOs), 3D mini-tumors grown from patient biopsies, have revolutionized personalized oncology by faithfully replicating tumor biology and enabling predictive drug testing for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. While demonstrating good predictive accuracy, current limitations include incomplete tumor microenvironments, variable establishment rates, and lengthy processing times. Emerging technologies like AI, organ-on-chip systems, and 3D bioprinting are addressing these challenges, while clinical trials explore applications in neoadjuvant therapy and real-time treatment guidance. This Review highlights key advances in PDCO technology and its transformative potential for treatment decision-making in digestive system cancers, bridging laboratory research with clinical care to enable truly personalized therapeutic strategies tailored to individual tumor biology.","PeriodicalId":19000,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Cancer","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":33.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Molecular Cancer","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12943-025-02429-0","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Digestive system cancers—including gastric, liver, colorectal, esophageal, and pancreatic malignancies—remain leading causes of cancer death, with treatment resistance posing major challenges in advanced disease. Patient-derived cancer organoids (PDCOs), 3D mini-tumors grown from patient biopsies, have revolutionized personalized oncology by faithfully replicating tumor biology and enabling predictive drug testing for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. While demonstrating good predictive accuracy, current limitations include incomplete tumor microenvironments, variable establishment rates, and lengthy processing times. Emerging technologies like AI, organ-on-chip systems, and 3D bioprinting are addressing these challenges, while clinical trials explore applications in neoadjuvant therapy and real-time treatment guidance. This Review highlights key advances in PDCO technology and its transformative potential for treatment decision-making in digestive system cancers, bridging laboratory research with clinical care to enable truly personalized therapeutic strategies tailored to individual tumor biology.

查看原文本刊更多论文

类器官在消化系统癌症治疗决策中的应用：进展与挑战

消化系统癌症——包括胃癌、肝癌、结肠直肠癌、食管癌和胰腺恶性肿瘤——仍然是癌症死亡的主要原因，治疗耐药性对晚期疾病构成了重大挑战。患者衍生的癌症类器官（PDCOs）是一种从患者活检中生长出来的3D微型肿瘤，通过忠实地复制肿瘤生物学，并为化疗、放疗、靶向治疗和免疫治疗提供预测性药物测试，彻底改变了个性化肿瘤学。虽然显示出良好的预测准确性，但目前的限制包括不完整的肿瘤微环境、可变的建立率和冗长的处理时间。人工智能、器官芯片系统和3D生物打印等新兴技术正在解决这些挑战，而临床试验正在探索在新辅助治疗和实时治疗指导方面的应用。本综述重点介绍了PDCO技术的关键进展及其在消化系统癌症治疗决策方面的变革潜力，将实验室研究与临床护理联系起来，以实现针对个体肿瘤生物学的真正个性化治疗策略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Molecular Cancer 医学-生化与分子生物学

CiteScore

54.90

自引率

2.70%

发文量

224

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Molecular Cancer is a platform that encourages the exchange of ideas and discoveries in the field of cancer research, particularly focusing on the molecular aspects. Our goal is to facilitate discussions and provide insights into various areas of cancer and related biomedical science. We welcome articles from basic, translational, and clinical research that contribute to the advancement of understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The scope of topics covered in Molecular Cancer is diverse and inclusive. These include, but are not limited to, cell and tumor biology, angiogenesis, utilizing animal models, understanding metastasis, exploring cancer antigens and the immune response, investigating cellular signaling and molecular biology, examining epidemiology, genetic and molecular profiling of cancer, identifying molecular targets, studying cancer stem cells, exploring DNA damage and repair mechanisms, analyzing cell cycle regulation, investigating apoptosis, exploring molecular virology, and evaluating vaccine and antibody-based cancer therapies. Molecular Cancer serves as an important platform for sharing exciting discoveries in cancer-related research. It offers an unparalleled opportunity to communicate information to both specialists and the general public. The online presence of Molecular Cancer enables immediate publication of accepted articles and facilitates the presentation of large datasets and supplementary information. This ensures that new research is efficiently and rapidly disseminated to the scientific community.