# Establishing efficient technologies for ovarian cancer organoid derivation from fresh tumor resections

> **NIH NIH R21** · NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION · 2020 · $234,900

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Ovarian cancer is among the deadliest cancer types, with a 5-year survival rate of only 47%. Survival rates for
women with ovarian cancer have not changed in the past 25 years. This is partly due to the high frequency of
patient relapses (over 75%) with cancers exhibiting drug resistance, making these cancers extremely difficult
to treat effectively. Exacerbating the issue is that ovarian carcinomas are especially heterogeneous with
respect to the cell of origin, genetics, and clinical evolution. These are major impediments to establishing
effective experimental models for laboratory research, which are critical to improve the understanding and
treatment of each patient's disease. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of
`organoids' – 3D self-organized tissue cultures – from adult stem cells and subsequently from tumor samples.
Tumor-derived organoids are arranged in a way that mimics the original tumor organization. Tumor-derived
organoids that can be cultured long-term offer the advantage of extending the experimental lifetime of
tumor resection samples, which are currently a limiting step in cancer research. Recent studies have
shown that these organoids faithfully recapitulate the genetics, histology, and drug responses of original
tumor samples from breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancer patients, paving the way for `living biobanks' of
these cancer types. Ovarian cancer organoids have been more challenging to establish, partly because of
their heterogeneity and unique growth requirements – but preliminary successes have now made it feasible to
develop technology for ovarian cancer organoid derivation from fresh tumor samples. This project aims to
build on these recent advances in the development of stem cell culture and stem-cell-based organoids
to establish platform technology for ovarian cancer organoid generation. Numerous media conditions
will be tested, which in a proof of concept will incorporate tumor genetic information to define specific growth
requirements. The organoid models generated will be validated to ensure concordance with the original tumor
genetics and histology, modifying the protocols accordingly. This project presents a unique opportunity to
investigate whether organoid drug sensitivities correspond to patient treatment outcomes, as patients will be
treated with standard-of-care chemotherapies following surgery to take the tumor samples, and organoids
will be tested with the same agents. Finally, the protocols generated will be adapted for robotic automation so
that numerous samples can be processed and biobanked in parallel at large scale, facilitating future adoption
of these methods in a clinical setting. Taken together, this project will establish a new patient-specific
preclinical model system to accelerate basic and clinical ovarian cancer research, ranging from
disease mechanisms to personalized medicine approaches that will help to prioritize the treatments
most likely t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9987574
- **Project number:** 5R21CA240219-02
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Laura Andres-Martin
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $234,900
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9987574

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9987574, Establishing efficient technologies for ovarian cancer organoid derivation from fresh tumor resections (5R21CA240219-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9987574. Licensed CC0.

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