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Emerging Prospects for the Study of Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells using Patient-derived Organoids
Ling Ding1, Yuning Yang1, Qin Lu1
1Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, CN 350122, China.
Abstract:
Human colorectal cancer (CRC) patient-derived organoids (PDOs) are a powerful ex vivo platform to directly assess the impact of molecular alterations and therapies on tumor cell proliferation, differentiation, response to chemotherapy, tumor-microenvironment interactions, and other facets of CRC biology. Next-generation sequencing studies have demonstrated that CRC is a highly heterogeneous disease with multiple distinct subtypes. PDOs are a promising new tool to study CRC due to their ability to accurately recapitulate their source tumor and thus reproduce this heterogeneity. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art for CRC PDOs in the study of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the cancer stem cell niche. Areas of focus include the relevance of PDOs to understanding CSC-related paracrine signaling, identifying interactions between CSCs and the tumor microenvironment, and modeling CSC-driven resistance to chemotherapies and targeted therapies. Finally, we summarize current findings regarding the identification and verification of CSC targets using PDOs and their potential use in personalized medicine.
Insights
Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) model human colorectal cancer (CRC) heterogeneity and cancer stem cells (CSCs). This review explores PDOs for studying CSCs, their niche, and therapeutic resistance in CRC.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Cancer Biology
- Stem Cell Research
Background:
- Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with distinct subtypes.
- Human colorectal cancer (CRC) patient-derived organoids (PDOs) offer an ex vivo platform to study CRC biology.
- PDOs accurately recapitulate tumor heterogeneity, making them valuable for CRC research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current state of CRC patient-derived organoids (PDOs) in studying cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their niche.
- To highlight the utility of PDOs in understanding CSC-related signaling, tumor microenvironment interactions, and therapy resistance.
- To summarize findings on CSC target identification and the potential of PDOs in personalized medicine for CRC.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on CRC patient-derived organoids (PDOs).
- Focus on studies investigating cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their niche using PDO models.
- Analysis of PDO applications in understanding paracrine signaling, microenvironment interactions, and drug resistance.
Main Results:
- PDOs effectively model CRC heterogeneity and cancer stem cell (CSC) biology.
- PDOs facilitate the study of CSC-niche interactions, including paracrine signaling.
- PDOs are instrumental in modeling and understanding CSC-driven resistance to therapies.
Conclusions:
- CRC patient-derived organoids (PDOs) are a powerful tool for advancing the understanding of colorectal cancer stem cells (CSCs) and their niche.
- PDOs show significant potential for identifying novel CSC targets and advancing personalized medicine approaches in CRC treatment.
- Further research utilizing PDOs can elucidate complex CSC biology and inform the development of more effective CRC therapies.
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