Application of Three-Dimensional (3D) Models for Gastrointestinal Malignancies

Gastrointestinal malignancies represent nowadays the so-called “big killers” in the field of cancer. Significant progress has been made in the last years and translational research has led to a deep understanding of gastrointestinal tumors. However, tumor heterogeneity is still the principal cause of drug resistance and the established 2D models failed to completely catch the principal characteristics of tumor biology. On the other hand, patient-derived xenograft models (PDXs) are too expensive and provide clinically meaningful information in a too extensive time frame, leading to a lack of therapeutic options for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.

In recent years, the use of 3D patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs) has provided an innovative tool due to their ability to resemble 3D tumor and microenvironment features, predicting clinical therapeutic response. Organoid technology represents a very promising research tool and accumulating evidence has been demonstrated in the field of gastrointestinal malignancies.

This Research Topic aims to collect original data from translational research groups and updated reviews of the literature to highlight recent discoveries on 3D models application for gastrointestinal malignancies.

Keywords: PDTO, organoids, gastrointestinal cancer, heterogeneity, translational research

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