Will Organoids Fill the Gap towards Functional Precision Medicine?

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Genomics
• Translational Medicine

Background:

• Precision medicine in solid tumors primarily relies on genomic profiling.
• Genomics-only approaches have shown limited success in predicting patient response in clinical trials.
• Factors beyond genomics, including gene/protein expression and tumor microenvironment, influence treatment outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the potential of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) in predicting drug response for solid tumors.
• To explore a functional approach to precision medicine beyond genomic analysis.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of patient-derived organoids (PDOs) derived from solid tumors.
• Utilizing PDOs as a model to test drug sensitivity and predict patient response.

Main Results:

• Patient-derived organoids provide a promising platform for functional drug screening.
• PDOs may overcome the limitations of genomics-only approaches in predicting treatment response.
• This functional approach could advance the application of precision medicine.

Conclusions:

• Patient-derived organoids represent a significant advancement for functional precision medicine in solid tumors.
• PDOs offer a viable strategy to predict individual patient response to drug treatments.
• Moving precision medicine to a functional environment using PDOs is feasible and impactful.