Ovarian carcinoma explant culture: model development and application in drug testing

Though considerable efforts have been made in the development of new tools to study ovarian cancer, currently available models are either cell line- or mouse-based. We are developing an innovative human-based model of whole explant tissue culture using primary ovarian tumors. Recently in our laboratory, such a model has successfully been established for the study of colorectal cancer-associated liver metastasis (Halama et al. Cancer Cell 2016). Human cancer tissue is taken into culture after surgery and is viable for several days. Explants are treated with (pre-)clinical-grade drugs and subsequently processed fo…