Patient-derived organoids as personalized avatars and a potential immunotherapy model in cervical cancer

Abstract

Cervical cancer remains a significant health issue in developing countries. However, finding a preclinical model that accurately reproduces tumor characteristics is challenging. Therefore, we established a patient-derived organoids (PDOs) biobank containing 67 cases of heterogeneous cervical cancer that mimic the histopathological and genomic characteristics of parental tumors. The in vitro response of the organoids indicated their ability to capture the radiological heterogeneity of the patients. To model individual responses to adoptive T cell therapy (ACT), we expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) ex vivo and co-cultured them with paired organoids. The PDOs-TILs co-culture system demonstrates clear responses that correspond to established immunotherapy efficiency markers like the proportion of CTLs. This study supports the potential of the PDOs platform to guide treatment in prospective interventional trials in cervical cancer.