Fig. 1

Main steps of PDO generation and main applications of PDOs. Human cancer tissues containing cancer cells, adult stem cells, pluripotent stem cells, or cancer stem cells are occasionally first disassociated into very small pieces, cell clusters, or single cells using mechanical and chemical methods and cultured under proper 3D conditions in hydrogels with ECM components (A). Tumoroids mimic the primary tissues in terms of histopathological features, genetic profiles, mutational landscape, and even responses to therapy, and tumoroid biobanks can be established (B). 3D, three-dimensional; ECM, extracellular matrix; PDO, patient-derived organoid