Creating 3D Organoid Models of Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for approximately 15% of all lung cancer cases and is clinically more aggressive than non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with over two-thirds of SCLC patients experiencing extensive-stage disease at the time of presentation. While extensive-stage disease can include the liver and bone, multiple lines of evidence have shown that SCLC has a propensity to metastasize to the brain—an estimated 50-60% of patients will develop brain metastases during the course of their disease. This presentation reviews 3D lung- and brain-organoid models that have been developed to study the formation and proliferation of SCLC brain metastases.