Cholangiocarcinoma Disease Modelling Through Patients Derived Organoids

Cancer organoids are 3D phenotypic cultures that can be established from resected or biopsy tumour samples and can be grown as mini tumours in the dish. Flourishing evidence supports the feasibility of patient derived organoids (PDO) from a number of solid tumours. Evidence for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) PDO is still sparse but growing. CCA PDO lines have been established from resected early stage disease, advanced cancers and highly chemorefractory tumours. Cancer PDO was shown to recapitulate the 3D morphology, genomic landscape and transcriptomic profile of the source counterpart. They proved to be a valued model for drug discovery and sensitivity testing, and they showed to mimic the drug response observed in vivo in the patients. However, PDO lack representation of the intratumour heterogeneity and the tumour-stroma interaction. The efficiency rate of CCA PDO within the three different subtypes, intrahepatic, perihilar and distal, is still to be explored. In this manuscript we will review evidence for CCA PDO highlighting advantages and limitations of this novel disease model.