Abstract 4240: A comprehensive in vitro tumor model: One-stop simultaneous isolation and culture of tumoroids, CAFs and TILs for advancing immuno-oncology research

Abstract The tumor microenvironment (TME), composed of a diverse array of cells, jointly participates in tumor formation and has attracted attention as a direct or indirect therapeutic target. Among the tumor-forming cells, cancer cells, cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF), and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) comprise major proportion and players in tumor biology. Therefore, an in vitro tumor model composed of at least above three major cellular players better mimics a patient’s tumor. Here, we developed a patient-derived tumor model containing tumoroids, CAFs and TILs isolated from the patient’s tumor tissue by using one-stop isolation culture system. Our one-stop culture system utilizes a Transwell-based method that concurrently segregates cancer cells, CAFs, and TILs based on distinct characteristics such as cell size, migration speed, and growth. Lung tumoroids, fibroblasts, and TILs segregated in Matrigel-coated upper Transwell chamber, Transwell pores and in the lower chamber, respectively. Lung tumoroids maintain the patient’s lung cancer tissue characteristics and genetic features during extended in vitro cultivation. Fibroblasts extracted from the Transwell pores exhibit significant similarity to CAFs found in patient tissue. TILs in the lower part of the Transwell chamber closely resemble those found in the original cancer tissue analyzed by FACS. We have also refined the functionality of TILs through a two-week expansion process. Patients’ tumor composed of 0.15 to 95.3 % of EpCAM positive tumor cells, 0.14 to 19.4 % of CD90 positive fibroblasts and 3.98 to 91.2 % of immune cells in FACS analysis. By reassembling three main cellular components of the tumor in a proper proportion, we developed a co-culture platform for a patient-derived tumor model reproducing patient-specific TME conditions. The co-culture platform showed a potential not only for an experimental model but also to use a predictive test of personalized immunotherapy responses for lung cancer patients. Citation Format: YOO RI KO, Sung Min Kim, Hye Seon Park, Se Jin Jang. A comprehensive in vitro tumor model: One-stop simultaneous isolation and culture of tumoroids, CAFs and TILs for advancing immuno-oncology research [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 4240.