Advancements in organoid models emulating metastatic niches - PubMed
a day ago
- #cancer-research
- #metastasis
- #organoids
- Metastases are a leading cause of cancer-related deaths, highlighting the need for therapies targeting metastatic stages and the tumor microenvironment.
- Current preclinical metastasis research primarily uses rodent models, which have species-specific limitations and are not ideal for large-scale human context screens.
- Human organoids, especially when cocultured with cancer cells (termed 'chimeroids'), offer scalable models to study cancer-microenvironment interactions.
- These chimeroids support genetic and pharmacological screens, aiding in the discovery of new targets and insights into metastasis-tissue colonization.
- The review focuses on stem cell-derived organoid models for organs commonly affected by metastases (brain, lung, liver, bone) and their ability to mimic physiologically relevant niches.
- Keywords include chimeroid cocultures, drug development, metastasis, metastatic microenvironment, organoids, and target identification.
- All authors are employees and/or shareholders of Novartis Pharma AG, with one author listed on several related patents.