Culture of Bladder Cancer Organoids as Precision Medicine Tools

This method is significant because patient-derived organoids provide a rapid and powerful tool to study urological cancers as they frequently mimic the genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity of this multispectrum disease. Organoids can be isolated from a limited amount of patient biopsy material and can be rapidly expanded for downstream analysis. The organoids generated using this protocol can be used both as models to help us understand the cellular and molecular basis of urological cancers and as precision medicine tools to let us predict which treatments and individual patients cancer might respond to.

To begin, collect a fresh macroscopically viable tumor specimen from surgery and ensure that the sample is submerged in transport medium in a sterile 50 milliliter conical tube or urine specimen jar during transit. Record specimen details including tissue weight, sample description, and details regarding any blood and urine samples on the patient specimen processing sheet. Carefully replace the transport medium with 10 milliliters of basal media and allow the tumor tissue to settle by gravity.