Cryobiopsy for clinical utilization of lung cancer organoids
2023
Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea
Until now, lung cancer organoids (LCOs) have mostly been obtained from surgical samples from patients with early stage lung cancer, as patients with advanced stages often cannot be operated. Biopsies are a solution, but conventional methods only yield small amounts of lung tissue, leading to a low success rate in culturing LCOs. Another critical issue is the overgrowth of normal lung cells in later passages of LCO culture, and the optimal culture conditions for LCOs have yet to be determined. To overcome these limitations, an attempt was made here to generate LCOs from cryobiopsy samples from patients with lung cancer. Overall, the initial success rate in generating LCOs from cryobiopsy samples was 40.7%. Transbronchial cryobiopsy allows the recovery of significantly larger amounts of lung tissue than bronchoscopic forceps biopsy. In addition, cryobiopsy can be used for peripheral lesions and is supported by radial endobronchial ultrasound. This study significantly improved the success rate of LCO culture and showed that the LCOs had features that resembled the primary tumours. Single-cell RNA sequencing confirmed high purity of cancer cells in early passages of LCOs derived from patients with advanced lung cancer. In addition, the three-dimensional structure and intracellular components of LCOs were characterised using three-dimensional holotomography. Finally, drug screening was performed using a dedicated micropillar culture system with LCOs obtained from cryobiopsy. LCOs obtained from cryobiopsy samples offer a promising solution to the critical limitations of conventional LCOs. Cryobiopsy can be used in patients with lung cancer at all stages, including those with peripheral lesions, and it can provide sufficient cells for LCO generation. Therefore one can assume that cryobiopsy will be a breakthrough strategy for the clinical application of LCOs in all stages of lung cancer.
Cryobiopsy: A breakthrough strategy for clinical utilization of lung cancer organoids
Chaeuk Chung
Added on: 08-31-2023
[1] https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/12/14/1854
