Current treatments for bladder cancer are only effective in a limited percentage of patients, indicating that personalized treatment based on individual tumour characteristics is needed. In a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer, bladder cancer organoids were established non-invasively from patients’ urine (urinoids). These urinoids recapitulated the histological features and the genetic characteristics of the original tumour. Moreover, urinoids’ response to bladder cancer therapies was similar to that of their tissue organoid counterpart. Despite some limitations, such as an increased chance of culture infection, urinoids are a fast and non-invasive method to obtain patients’ organoids, providing proof of the feasibility of sequential monitoring of patients’ tumour characteristics and response to therapy.

目前膀胱癌的治疗仅对有限比例的患者有效，这表明需要根据个体肿瘤特征进行个性化治疗。在《英国癌症杂志》上发表的一项新研究中，从患者的尿液（类尿素）中非侵入性地建立了膀胱癌类器官。这些类尿素概括了原始肿瘤的组织学特征和遗传特征。此外，类尿素对膀胱癌治疗的反应与其组织类器官相似。尽管存在一些局限性，例如培养物感染的机会增加，类尿素是一种快速、非侵入性获取患者类器官的方法，为连续监测患者肿瘤特征和治疗反应的可行性提供了证据。