Most patients with advanced ovarian cancer respond to first-line platinum chemotherapy, yet the majority recur within two years, and the returning tumor is often pharmacologically and morphologically distinct from the one first treated. Conventional preclinical models rarely capture this intra-patient shift, which is precisely where the biology of acquired resistance lives. A new white paper describes a patient-matched 3D spheroid workflow built on the company’s biobank of more than 150,000 cryopreserved primary tumor samples spanning 137 tumor types, including a clinically significant collection of matched primary and recurrent ovarian cancer pairs derived from the same individual patients. Spheroids from these paired specimens are profiled through a single-instrument workflow that combines brightfield morphology, LIVE/DEAD fluorescence, and CellTiter-Glo luminescence, producing a coherent, multidimensional readout for each sample while eliminating the inter-assay variability of instrument transfer.
Across matched pairs, recurrent spheroids were measurably larger and less eccentric than their primary counterparts, and dose-response curves shifted rightward for select agents, consistent with the reduced drug sensitivity that defines the resistant phenotype. Imaging-derived live/dead ratios tracked the luminescence data across pairs, supporting the reliability of both readout modalities. Because resistance is interrogated as an intra-patient phenomenon rather than a between-group comparison, the matched design provides a built-in comparator that reduces the confounding variability inherent in unpaired studies. Run in a CLIA-certified, NYSDOH-approved laboratory, the platform supports target validation, resistance mechanism studies, biomarker discovery and patient stratification, and companion diagnostic development, with engagement options ranging from individual experiments to integrated multi-compound screening campaigns.
