Three-Dimensional Organoids Reveal Therapy Resistance of Esophageal and Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells.
Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol 2018;
7:73-91. [PMID:
30510992 PMCID:
PMC6260338 DOI:
10.1016/j.jcmgh.2018.09.003]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 09/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS
Oropharyngeal and esophageal squamous cell carcinomas, especially the latter, are a lethal disease, featuring intratumoral cancer cell heterogeneity and therapy resistance. To facilitate cancer therapy in personalized medicine, three-dimensional (3D) organoids may be useful for functional characterization of cancer cells ex vivo. We investigated the feasibility and the utility of patient-derived 3D organoids of esophageal and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.
METHODS
We generated 3D organoids from paired biopsies representing tumors and adjacent normal mucosa from therapy-naïve patients and cell lines. We evaluated growth and structures of 3D organoids treated with 5-fluorouracil ex vivo.
RESULTS
Tumor-derived 3D organoids were grown successfully from 15 out of 21 patients (71.4%) and passaged with recapitulation of the histopathology of the original tumors. Successful formation of tumor-derived 3D organoids was associated significantly with poor response to presurgical neoadjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiation therapy in informative patients (P = 0.0357, progressive and stable diseases, n = 10 vs. partial response, n = 6). The 3D organoid formation capability and 5-fluorouracil resistance were accounted for by cancer cells with high CD44 expression and autophagy, respectively. Such cancer cells were found to be enriched in patient-derived 3D organoids surviving 5-fluorouracil treatment.
CONCLUSIONS
The single cell-based 3D organoid system may serve as a highly efficient platform to explore cancer therapeutics and therapy resistance mechanisms in conjunction with morphological and functional assays with implications for translation in personalized medicine.
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