Emerging Prospects for the Study of Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells using Patient-derived Organoids

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.

Automated summary

This review summarizes the application of human colorectal cancer patient-derived organoids (PDOs) in the study of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the cancer stem cell niche. It focuses on the relevance of PDOs in understanding CSC-related signaling, interactions between CSCs and the tumor microenvironment, and the modeling of CSC-driven resistance to therapies.