Patient-Derived Organoid Model in the Prediction of Chemotherapeutic Drug Response in Colorectal Cancer

As an emerging technology in precision medicine, the patient-derived organoid (PDO) technology has been indicated to provide novel modalities to judge the sensitivity of individual tumors to cancer drugs. In this work, an in vitro model of colorectal cancer (CRC) was established using the PDO culture, and it is demonstrated that the PDO samples preserved, to a great extent, the histologic features and marker expression of the original tumor tissues. Subsequently, cancer drugs 5-FU, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan were selected and screened on five CRC PDO samples, while the patient-derived organoid xenograft (PDOX) model was applied for comparison. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn according to the IC50 data from the PDO model and the relative tumor proliferation rate (T/C%) from PDOX. Interestingly, the area under the ROC curve was 0.84 (95% CI, 0.64-1.04, P value = 0.028), which suggested that the IC50 of cancer drugs from the PDO model was strongly correlated with PDOX responses. In addition, the optimal sensitivity cutoff value for drug screening in CRC PDOs was identified at 10.35 mu M, which could act as a reference value for efficacy evaluation of 5-FU, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan in the colorectal cancer drug screening. Since there are no unified criteria to judge the sensitivity of drugs in vitro, our work provides a method for establishing in vitro evaluation criteria via PDO and PDOX model using the patient tissues received from local hospitals, exhibiting potential in clinical cancer therapy and precision medicine.

Automated summary

This study establishes an in vitro model of colorectal cancer (CRC) using the patient-derived organoid (PDO) technology and demonstrates that the PDO samples preserve the histologic features and marker expression of the original tumor tissues. Comparing with the patient-derived organoid xenograft (PDOX) model, the study finds a strong correlation between the IC50 of cancer drugs from the PDO model and the PDOX responses. Moreover, an optimal sensitivity cutoff value for drug screening in CRC PDOs is identified.