Advances in research and application of breast cancer organoids / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in women. Its incidence rate is increasing year by year and tends to be younger. It seriously threatens women’s health. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish an ideal breast cancer model that can accurately simulate the tumor in vivo. Organoid is a new three-dimensional cultural model in vitro, which recapitulates key aspects of in vivo tissue or organ. In recent years, researches based on organoids have covered many kinds of tumors. OBJECTIVE: To review the research progress and application of breast cancer organoids, in order to provide a new research way for personalized treatment of breast cancer. METHODS: Using the key words of “organoid, breast cancer organoids, cancer organoids, mammosphere, three-dimensional culture” in English and Chinese, respectively, the first author retrieved relevant articles published from January 1980 to February 2020 in CNKI, Wanfang, and PubMed databases. The type of the article was not limited. After removal of the articles that were not related to the purpose of the study or repetitive, 66 articles were finally analyzed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This review introduced organoid technology briefly and retraced the process of exploring suitable culture conditions to establish breast-cancer-origin organoids. Also, we concluded latest development of its applications and research progress. Breast cancer organoids have a wide range of application prospects in disease modeling, tumor pathogenesis, drug screening and other aspects, which provide a reliable model for breast cancer research and treatment, and in particular, open up a new perspective for personalized treatment of breast cancer.