The Development of a Three-Dimensional Platform for Patient-Derived Ovarian Cancer Tissue Models: A Systematic Literature Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of the state of the art on in vitro models for ovarian cancer studies, with focus on patient derived studies, which provides a personalised approach to treatment of patients with ovarian cancer. ABSTRACT: There is an unmet biomedical need for ex vivo tumour models that would predict drug responses and in turn help determine treatment regimens and potentially predict resistance before clinical studies. Research has shown that three dimensional models of ovarian cancer (OvCa) are more realistic than two dimensional in vitro systems as they are able to capture patient in vivo conditions in more accurate manner. The vast majority of studies aiming to recapitulate the ovarian tumour morphology, behaviors, and study chemotherapy responses have been using ovarian cancer cell lines. However, despite the advantages of utilising cancer cell lines to set up a platform, they are not as informative as systems applying patient derived cells, as cell lines are not able to recapitulate differences between each individual patient characteristics. In this review we discussed the most recent advances in the creation of 3D ovarian cancer models that have used patient derived material, the challenges to overcome and future applications.