Organoid coculture models of the tumor microenvironment

A review by Yang Z. and co-authors, published in 2026 in Med Research, summarizes organoid coculture models for cancer research and immunotherapy doi.org. According to the authors, three-dimensional cancer organoids grown in vitro closely reproduce the phenotypic and genetic features of the parental tumor tissue. This makes them used for cancer research, drug screening and personalized medicine doi.org.

The authors note that traditional organoid cultures lack key components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). These include cancer-associated fibroblasts, immune cells, vascular networks, and dynamic physicochemical cues such as fluid flow and oxygen gradients doi.org. As a result, it is harder to study tumor–stroma crosstalk, model responses to immunotherapy and predict clinical efficacy, particularly for agents that act through intercellular interactions doi.org.

Matrigel and air–liquid interface cocultures

Submerged Matrigel coculture allows specific TME components to be reconstituted systematically, so that defined cell–cell interactions can be dissected doi.org. Air–liquid interface culture preserves the native, unmanipulated TME and retains resident immune cells and fibroblasts. According to the review, this suits studies of immune infiltration and checkpoint blockade doi.org.

Microfluidic chips and 3D bioprinting

Microfluidic culture and organoid-on-a-chip platforms provide dynamic control over fluid flow, oxygen gradients and shear stress. The authors state that this overcomes the static nature of traditional cultures and enables vascularization, perfusion modeling and high-throughput drug screening doi.org. Three-dimensional bioprinting is described as offering high spatial precision in building multilayered heterogeneous tumor architectures, including vascular networks and tumor–stroma interfaces doi.org.

The review also covers applications of these systems in immunotherapy optimization, adoptive cell therapy and personalized medicine. It analyzes the advantages and limitations of each model and outlines perspectives for developing more physiologically relevant preclinical platforms doi.org. It is a literature synthesis and does not report a new experiment.

Review in Med Research compares four organoid coculture methods for modelling the tumor microenvironment

Matrigel and air–liquid interface cocultures

Microfluidic chips and 3D bioprinting

Sources · 2

Read also

Researchers recover rooftop PV tilt and azimuth from power data, tested on 17 Australian systems