Fine-Needle Aspiration-Based Patient-Derived Cancer Organoids

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biotechnology
• Translational Medicine

Background:

• Patient-derived cancer organoids are valuable for modeling disease and predicting treatment outcomes.
• Current organoid isolation methods often require extensive tissue processing, limiting their clinical utility.
• Minimally invasive techniques are needed to improve the efficiency and accessibility of organoid culture.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a simple, minimally invasive fine-needle aspiration (FNA)-based organoid culture technique.
• To assess the adaptability of this method across diverse cancer types.
• To demonstrate the utility of FNA-derived organoids in various downstream applications.

Main Methods:

• Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) was used to collect tissue samples from gastrointestinal, thyroid, melanoma, and kidney tumors.
• Organoids were cultured directly from FNA samples with minimal tissue manipulation.
• Histologic patterns and immune cell infiltration were preserved.
• Downstream applications included in vitro drug screening, immune cell characterization, and in vivo xenograft models.

Main Results:

• The FNA-based method successfully generated organoids from a variety of tumor types.
• The technique required minimal tissue processing, preserving crucial histologic features and immune cells.
• FNA-derived organoids supported diverse applications, including high-throughput drug screening and xenograft development.

Conclusions:

• Routine clinical fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a viable and underutilized source for generating patient-derived cancer organoids.
• This minimally invasive approach enhances the adaptability and accuracy of organoid models for both research and clinical settings.
• FNA-based organoid culture facilitates personalized medicine by enabling rapid therapeutic response prediction and drug development.