Organotypic Models of Lung Cancer

Human lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with nearly 2 million of new cases diagnosed each year, often too late for a successful therapeutic intervention. In this chapter, organotypic models of lung cancer will be reviewed. Ex vivo tissue explants, spheroids, organoids, and novel bioengineering approaches are currently being used to study human lung cancer. Although there is no ideal method that will fully recapitulate the complex human lung architecture, the three-dimensional (3D) organotypic models described here represent a major advance from classical two-dimensional (2D) tissue culture models. Organotypic tissue cultures are better at predicting in vivo tissue responses to anticancer drugs or carcinogenic toxins. In addition, there is also a possibility to use these systems as part of personalized medicine (e.g., to assist clinicians in selecting appropriate therapeutic choices based on individual patient-derived tissue responses to drugs in vitro). There is still a need for improvement in the 3D culture systems, such as automation for high-throughput testing and reduction of costs. However, given the large number of failed clinical trials due to safety or efficacy reasons, more attention should be given to these more physiologically relevant 3D organotypic tissue culture models.