Establishment of in vitro 3D spheroid cell cultivation from human gynecologic cancer tissues

Advanced-stage gynecologic cancer remains a life-threatening disease. Here, we present a protocol for establishment of stable in vitro 3D spheroid cells derived from human uterine endometrial and ovarian cancer tissues. The tumor-derived spheroid cells have cancer stem cell-related characteristics, including tumorigenesis, and can be used for biological and biochemical analyses and drug efficacy assays. Because these cells possess the biological characteristics of original human tumors, spheroid cells and spheroid-derived xenografts will have applications in personalized medicine in the future. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Ishiguro et al. (2016) and Mori et al. (2019).