Malignant pleural effusion facilitates the establishment and maintenance of tumor organoid biobank with multiple patient-derived lung tumor cell sources

The Patient-Derived Organoids (PDOs) has demonstrated significant potential in personalized medicine. However, the initial establishment of lung cancer organoids (LCOs), and timely therapeutic recommendations face several challenges. Particularly, the current culture systems have not yet achieved the capability to long-term cultivation of all lung tumor sample sources, including malignant pleural effusion (MPE), which poses significant barriers to the rapid clinical translation of PDOs. Here, we established a LCOs biobank derived from various tumor cell origins and investigated the impact of supplementing culture media with MPE supernatant on organoid formation, culture duration, and drug sensitivity. Our findings indicate that MPE can enhance the successful rate of LCOs by extending the passage number and promoting the initial formation of difficult-to-culture samples, such as those derived from MPE or cell lines that were previously unsuccessful in Airway Organoid (AO) medium. MPE also facilitates the rapid proliferation of LCOs, reducing the culture duration by over 50%. Additionally, LCOs exhibit increased chemoresistance in the presence of MPE, which modifies stem cell distribution and reshapes the internal structure of the organoids. Overall, this study highlights the significance of MPE in facilitating the establishment and maintenance of LCOs, and its potential for translational applications in lung cancer research and personalized.