Future Match Making: When Pediatric Oncology Meets Organoid Technology

Abstract

Unlike adult cancers that frequently result from the accumulation in time of mutational “hits” often linked to lifestyle, childhood cancers are emerging as diseases of dysregulated development through massive epigenetic alterations. The ability to reconstruct these differences in cancer models is therefore crucial for better understanding the uniqueness of pediatric cancer biology. Cancer organoids (i.e., tumoroids) represent a promising approach for creating patient-derived in vitro cancer models that closely recapitulate the overall pathophysiological features of natural tumorigenesis, including intra-tumoral heterogeneity and plasticity. Though largely applied to adult cancers, this technology is scarcely used for childhood cancers, with a notable delay in technological transfer. However, tumoroids could provide an unprecedented tool to unravel the biology of pediatric cancers and improve their therapeutic management. We herein present the current state-of-the-art of a long awaited and much needed matchmaking.