Head and neck cancer organoids: a panoramic perspective from basic construction to clinical translation - Review

Sep 23, 2026

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Head and neck cancer (HNC) comprises heterogeneous malignancies with complex pathogenesis and persistent treatment challenges. Patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs) provide an in vitro platform that preserves key spatial structure, function, and inter- and intratumor heterogeneity, enabling mechanistic study and personalized drug-sensitivity testing. This review outlines HNC organoid and organoid-on-chip construction and application, evaluates advances and effectiveness, and discusses limitations and development directions to support further research and clinical translation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

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Pages17

Reading Time43 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Organoid models and PDTOs

Milestones and relevance to cancer research

Meng et al. Stem Cell Research & Therapy (2025) 16:534 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-025-04599-6](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-025-04599-6) Stem Cell Research & Therapy REVIEW Open Access Head and neck cancer organoids: a panoramic perspective from basic construction to clinical translation Ruoyu Meng1†, Lianpin Yu2†, Xiaomei Li1†, Na Ning3, Haibin Hao1, Xiaonan Zhang4, Jiabing Kong4, Wei Song1* and Xinyu Li 1* Abstract Head and neck cancer (HNC), which refers to a heterogeneous group of malignancies, is a serious threat to human health. Its pathogenesis is complex, and the treatment faces many challenges. As an emerging in vitro threedimensional (3D) model in recent years, organoids can highly mimic the structure and function of the source organs, which show unique advantages in the study of HNC. Patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs) can not only be used to explore the mechanism of tumor occurrence and development, but also provide a personalized drug sensitivity detection platform for precision medicine. Herein, we review the construction and application of HNC organoidsand organoids-on-chips, discuss the advancement and effectiveness of this technology, the shortcomings and development direction of existing technologies in HNC field, hoping to provide reference for its further research and clinical transformation, and looking forward to its broad prospects in overcoming the difficult problems of HNC. Keywords Organoids, Organoid-on-a-chip, Head and neck cancer, Precision medicine Introduction Organoids are self-organizing, miniature, in vitro organ models derived primarily from pluripotent stem cells, adult stem/progenitor cells, or even dissociated tumor †Ruoyu Meng, Lianpin Yu and Xiaomei Li are co-first authors and contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Wei Song [songwei@sdfmu.edu.cn](songwei@sdfmu.edu.cn)[ ](songwei@sdfmu.edu.cn)Xinyu Li[lixinyu@sdfmu.edu.cn](lixinyu@sdfmu.edu.cn) 1 Department of Oncology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, People’s Republic of China 2 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, People’s Republic of China 3 Shandong Fuwei Biotechnology Corporation, Jinan 250021, Shandong, People’s Republic of China 4 Shandong First Medical University (Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences), Jinan 250021, Shandong, People’s Republic of China tissues. Normal organoids used in physiological studies can be generated from pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells; pluripotent stem cells can be embryonic stem cells or induced-pluripotent stem cells, while adult stem cells are generally separated from tissue samples [1–4]. The patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs), also called “cancer surrogates”, are usually derived from patients’ tumor tissues [4]. The organoids have similar spatial structures to the source organs, maintain key characteristics, and reproduce some of the physiological functions of their in vivo corresponding organs [5, 6]. In 2009, the three-dimensional (3D) intestinal organoids were successfully cultivated from single leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5) expressing adult intestinal stem cells for the first time by Hans Clevers’team [7]. It was rated as one of the top ten scientific and technological breakthroughs by Science in 2013 and was rated as the Technology of the Year in the field of life sciences by Nature Methods in 2017. The © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the

FAQs

What are head and neck cancer organoids used for?

They are used to study HNC pathogenesis and to support personalized drug sensitivity detection in precision medicine. The organoids also mimic structure and function of source tissues.

How do patient-derived tumor organoids (PDTOs) compare with 2D cell lines, animal models, and PDTX models?

PDTOs retain inter- and intratumor heterogeneity and avoid the time-consuming and costly processes and ethical concerns of animal experiments. Compared with 2D and traditional animal models, they better replicate native tumor structural, biochemical, and biophysical characteristics.

What topics does the review cover regarding HNC organoids?

It reviews construction and application of HNC organoids and organoids-on-chips, discusses advancements and effectiveness, and highlights shortcomings and future development directions to support research and clinical translation.

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Aldword