Generation and molecular characterization of monoclonal organoids from serous ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer (OC) represent one of the most lethal gynecological cancer, challenging to diagnosis for lacking of unique markers and absence of appropriate model to investigate its origin, pathogenesis and recurrence after surgery. Tumor-organoids of different kind of tumors have already been generated, no study has considered yet to capture the uniqueness of HGSOC at single cell level. By combining stemness features of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and organoid generation, i established a method for isolating CSCs derived from OC solid tumors and ascites. Taking advantage of the specific ability of CSCs to generate anchorage-independent spheres, I have developed a modified version of the sphere forming assay. We found that in our specific conditions we achieve the growth of a potential single cancer stem cell. The most aggressive component of the tumor generated organoids from one single cancer stem cell, namely monoclonal organoid which merge cancer stemness and organoids generation features. A molecular characterization/profile of HGSOC monoclonal organoids with new generation techniques, including single cell analyses could really improve our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that drive ovarian cancer progression, hopefully leading to novel therapies.