Abstract 4233: Rapid and robust generation of ex vivo tumoroid samples from fresh patient samples in a serum-free, conditioned medium-free system
Authors: Paul Colin , Bullock Amber , Chatman Anthony , Balhouse Brittany , Yankaskas Chris , Thakuri Pradip Shahi , Dallas Matt , Kuninger David 
Published: March 2024

Functional precision oncology describes a method in which an individual patient’s cancer cells are tested for response to various treatments ex vivo to aid in therapy selection. In many cases, these cultures take the form of tumoroids, which are 3D, patient-derived “mini tumors” that retain phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of the patient cancer. While interest in functional precision oncology is increasing due to strong correlation between patient responses and those experimentally observed using matched tumoroid models in the literature, a lack of standardization has precluded its widespread translation to clinical settings. To study the ability to generate short-term tumoroid cultures using a commercially available, serum-free, and conditioned medium-free system, we processed fresh tumor resection samples and performed culture in Gibco™ OncoPro™ Tumoroid Culture Medium. Tumor resection samples spanning a variety of indications were stored in supplemented Hibernate™-A Medium (including antibiotics) and shipped overnight on gel packs to a central tissue processing site. Samples were minced, enzymatically dissociated, and counted. Average yields of ~2000-12,000 cells per mg of tumor resection tissue were observed, with lower yields in lung, head and neck, and breast cancer samples and higher yields in endometrial and colorectal cancer samples. Donor-to-donor variability generated a wide range of yields within a given indication. Similarly, cell viability following dissociation ranged widely, reaching as low as 20% for some samples and exceeding 90% for others. Though yields and initial viability varied, dissociated cells that were plated in OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium formed tumoroids in &gt;85% of samples within 7 days of tissue receipt. Both mutational profiles and gene expression patterns were highly conserved (&gt;90%) between initial tumor samples and cells cultured in OncoPro for 7 days. Computational approaches designed to identify cell-type specific signatures from bulk RNA sequencing data indicated that immune cell population signatures were present after one week in OncoPro medium. Additionally, we have developed methods to analyze tumoroid response to compounds and candidate cell therapies by both plate reader- and imaging-based analyses using ~1.2e6 initial tumor cells per 96-well plate. Due to the high success rate of tumoroid formation from fresh tumor samples and retention of donor-specific characteristics in OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium, we believe that it will be a valuable tool for functional precision oncology of solid tumor samples.

Citation Format: Colin Paul, Amber Bullock, Anthony Chatman, Brittany Balhouse, Chris Yankaskas, Pradip Shahi Thakuri, Matt Dallas, David Kuninger. Rapid and robust generation of ex vivo tumoroid samples from fresh patient samples in a serum-free, conditioned medium-free system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 4233.