Thermo Fisher Scientific, a life sciences company, launched Gibco OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium Kit, the first commercially available culture medium specifically developed for the expansion of patient-derived tumoroids, or cancer organoids, from multiple cancer indications.

More closely resembling donor tissue than traditional 2D cell models, patient-derived tumoroids – cultures of tumor cells derived from individual patients – hold promise in helping improve clinical trial success rates by enabling researchers to better model disease and predict patient response to therapeutics in vitro.

According to Thermo Fisher Scientific, use of tumoroids in cancer research has been limited due to challenging culture requirements and a lack of commercially available media systems. Thermo Fisher’s new off-the-shelf, modular tumoroid culture medium kit is designed to make complex cancer models more accessible to researchers.

In addition to democratizing this workflow through the OncoPro Tumoroid Media system, Tumoroid Assay Development Services support outsourced screening and characterization. Customers may also leverage 7 unique OncoPro Tumoroid Cell Lines, representing four different cancer indications including colorectal, lung, endometrial and breast. To improve ease of use, the OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium Kit includes a scalable, automation-compatible suspension culture method.

“Cancer’s unpredictable nature presents a significant scientific and clinical challenge for future discoveries and in delivering life-saving treatments to patients,” said Brian Douglass, vice president and general manager, cell biology at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Globally, millions of patients and their families still await a cure for cancer despite the decades of advances in research, diagnostics and treatments aimed at helping lower cancer mortality. We developed the new OncoPro Tumoroid Culture Medium Kit so the scientific community can take greater advantage of tumoroid models to help bring drug candidates to market faster and more cost-effectively.”