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REVIEW ARTICLE
Application of cancer organoids: The forefront of

personalized oncology and preclinical testing

Lu-Qi Cao 1 , Yuhao Xie 1 , Yuhong Liu 2 , John Wurpel , Leli Zeng * , and Zhe-Sheng Chen *
1
2
1
1 Department of Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy and Health Science, St John’s University, Queens, New York, United States
of America
2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digestive Cancer Research, Precision Medicine Center, The Biobank, Scientific Research
Center, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
*Corresponding authors: Leli Zeng (zenglli6@mail.sysu.edu.cn); Zhe-Sheng Chen (chenz@stjohns.edu)

Citation: Cao L, Xie Y, Liu Y, Abstract
Wurpel J, Zeng L, Chen Z. Application
of cancer organoids: The forefront
of personalized oncology and Cancer remains one of the most pressing medical problems in the world. Recent
preclinical testing. Organoid Res. years have seen a gradual rise in utilization of “organoids,” a novel in vitro
2025;1(2):025050008. three-dimensional culture technology, in cancer research. Organoids are multicellular
doi: 10.36922/OR025050008 structures derived from human stem cells, and cancer organoids can replicate the
Received: January 30, 2025 characteristics, morphology, and functionality of the original tumor in the human
Revised: March 21, 2025 body. At present, organoid technology has been widely used in various oncologic
contexts, including colorectal, liver, lung, pancreatic, and breast cancers, providing
Accepted: April 1, 2025 considerable assistance in patient-specific drug testing, precision medicine, and the
Published online: April 29, 2025 development of personalized medical strategies. Therefore, this preclinical model
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s). contributes to significantly accelerating the translation from basic cancer research
This is an Open-Access article to clinical therapeutics. This review discusses the preparation of cancer organoids
distributed under the terms of the and their recent progress in multiple cancer research fields. Finally, the challenges of
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution, and organoid technology in current clinical practice and future development prospects
reproduction in any medium, which are discussed.
provided that the original work is
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Keywords: Tumor organoids; Cancer; Precision medicine; Preclinical model;
Publishing remains neutral with regard Personalized oncology
to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

1. Introduction To date, treatment models used in cancer research
include cancer cell lines for 2D cell culture, murine
Cancer poses a formidable challenge to global healthcare models, and primary patient-derived xenografts (PDXs).
3-7
systems in the United States and worldwide. As of 2024, Traditional tumor models have significantly advanced
1,2
the American Cancer Society estimates approximately
2 million new cancer cases and 610,000 deaths in the U.S., cancer research. However, many factors have limited
with lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers (CRCs) the experimental outcomes of these models, and they
being the top causes of death. In addition, according have not shown satisfactory results after entering the
2
8,9
to the World Health Organization’s statistics on cancer clinical trials. For example, since cancer cell lines grow
incidence/mortality in 185 countries or regions in 2022, the adherently in culture medium, this growth modality fails
number of new cancer cases globally is predicted to exceed to effectively simulate the 3D structure of tumors and the
35 million by 2050, a 77% rise over the current number of corresponding microenvironment within the human body.
cases. Cancer continues to threaten the health and social In addition, during numerous passaging in vitro, these
1
development of the population, according to these statistics. tumor cells are prone to unpredictable gene mutations
Therefore, investigating tumor pathogenesis, identifying or genetic drift, resulting in the inability to replicate the
potential biomarkers, and enhancing treatment outcomes genetic heterogeneity of the original tumors. 5,10,11 As mice
should be the main goals of cancer research. grow, tumor cells in PDX models may undergo genetic drift

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/OR025050008