Discussion

Most life sciences and biomedical researches would not be possible without the availability of long term established and “immortalised” cell lines in the past fifty years. This has led to major advances in our understanding of the physiology and pathology of diseases and the finding of numerous pharmaceuticals to treat human diseases. However, there are increasing recognition that the use of these “cell lines” has also contributed to the failure of many drug discovery programmes in clinical trials across different diseases, including cancer. In recent years, the adoption of different variety of so called “3D cultures” in Oncology research has rise exponentially with the aim to establish in vitro cell culture models which mimic more closely to “patient-tumour” environment such that the efficacy and safety properties of drugs discovered using these models will potentially be translated more effectively into the clinic.

In this presentation, recent data and system advances across these models will be discussed, including a comprehensive overview on the merits and technical challenges these models may bring to the Oncology Drug Discovery.