Development and Application of Tumor Organoids: An Emerging Platform for Gynecological Cancers

Yu Hu,1,* Wei Chen,2,* Xiaojing Zhang,3,* Ying Wu,4 Furong Du,5 Jingrui Wang,5 Meijun He,4 Wei Sun6 1Laboratory Department, the People’s Hospital of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture & the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Dali University, Chuxiong, Yunnan, 675000, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gynecology, Clinical Oncology School of Fujian Medical University, Fujian Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350014, People’s Republic of China; 3Reproductive Health Research Institute, Henan Academy of Innovations in Medical Science, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450000, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the 920th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force, Kunming, Yunnan, 650032, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Medicine, Kingbio Medical Co., Ltd., Chongqing, 401123, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of General Internal Medicine, Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital/Shanxi Hospital Affiliated to Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030013, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Wei Sun, Department of General Internal Medicine, Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital/Shanxi Hospital Affiliated to Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030013, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected] Meijun He, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the 920th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force, Kunming, Yunnan, 650032, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Gynecological cancers pose great health threats to women, in which ovarian cancer (OC), cervical cancer (CC) and endometrial cancer (EC) are most common. Conventional treatment modalities for gynecological cancers, such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are usually affected by multiple factors like drug resistance and recurrence. Organoids, a three-dimensional culture system derived from stem cells, have been demonstrated to recapitulate the biological structure and function of human organs and gradually used in the treatment of various cancer types, including gynecological cancers. The organoids established from gynecological cancers have patient tumor-dependent morphology and disease characteristics while retaining the tumor’s marker expression and genomic profiling, and present heterogeneous inter- and intra-patient drug responses, offering novel insights into drug response of the individual patients. This review provides an overview of recent advancements in the development and application of organoids from gynecological cancers, promoting the understanding of the mechanism underlying tumorigenesis, drug screening prediction and personalized treatment application in gynecological cancers.Keywords: gynecological cancers, tumor organoids, drug screening, molecular mechanism, precision medicine