We have established a single cell derived 3D organoid culture platform, “Rapid, Reproducible, Rare Cell 3D Expansion” (R3CE). This is the first scaffold-free 3D culture system that does not require cell aggregation or 3D scaffold such as Matrigel. We have demonstrated its ability not only to generate 3D organoids of solid tumors and normal tissues from surgical tissues, but also 3D organoids from rare cells such as needle biopsies and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood with 96% successful rate. Only 1 mL of blood and one-week of culture time is required to perform over 8 different drug resistance evaluation on cultured CTCs. Our data demonstrated the accurate prediction of drug resistance acquired over the treatment cycles. The in vitro drug resistance on patient CTCs and the tumor size are positively correlated with the sensitivity and specificity test AUC = 0.96 for the neoadjuvant treatment breast cancer patients (stages I-III, n=12), and 100% concordance for the stage IV breast cancer patients (n=5, drug no. = 12). In conclusion, the R3CE derived organoids and CTC spheroid culture system enables non-invasive clinical assays in time for clinical decision.
Category: Novel assay technology
Keyword 1: organoids, Keyword 2: drug assay, Keyword 3: circulating tumor cells