3D tumor model - a platform for anticancer drug development

While still attractive, the currently available 2D cell culture models present several limitations and if possible should be supplemented with their 3D counterparts, that is with spheroids/organoids or bio-printed structures. Those alternatives can sometimes show widely different results compared to the simpler 2D cell culture, especially during cytotoxicity testing that is often used during cancer drug development and in the rising field of personalized medicine. Although some of the methods like spheroid formation and basic alginate based bio-prints were already available for years, they still require huge amounts of optimization and troubleshooting to be used effectively. Proficient use of dedicated tools and software can help to overcome some of the difficulties associated with those seemingly well described models. In this article we compare the most popular and currently available methods of acquiring 3D bio-models while describing their limitations and shortcomings as well as technical hurdles that one has to overcome to succeed in the use of this complex model.