Open Access

REVIEW

Advances in the Research and Development of Breast Cancer Organoids

Ling Li^1,2,#, Shuai Zhao^3,#, Xiaoxiao Wang², Jiahui Du², Zhen Jin¹, Song-Bai Liu^1,2,*, Xiaohua Li^2,3,*

1 School of Chemistry and Life Science, Biology and Materials Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, China
2 Jiangsu Province Engineering Research Center of Development and Translation of Key Technologies for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Suzhou Vocational Health College, Suzhou, China
3 Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Wuzhong People’s Hospital of Suzhou City, Suzhou, China

* Corresponding Authors: Song-Bai Liu. Email: ; Xiaohua Li. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Breaking the Bottleneck of Therapeutic Resistance in Solid Tumors: Emerging Technologies, Novel Targets, and Innovative Strategies)

Oncology Research 2026, 34(9), 5 https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2026.083636

Received 07 April 2026; Accepted 09 May 2026; Issue published 13 August 2026

Abstract

Breast cancer ranks first in global cancer incidence. Due to its high heterogeneity, cancer cells often develop drug resistance during metastasis, leading to therapeutic challenges and poor prognosis. Consequently, breast cancer organoid models have emerged, which can effectively recapitulate the tumor microenvironment and serve as important tools for investigating the mechanisms underlying breast cancer initiation and progression. Breast cancer organoids exhibit interactions between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM) while retaining the heterogeneity of the original tumor cells. Owing to these advantages, such models have been widely applied in studies of tumor pathogenesis, disease modeling, drug screening, therapeutic response prediction, and microenvironment reconstruction. Although breast cancer organoids still have certain limitations in terms of construction, long-term culture, and fully recapitulating the tumor microenvironment, they represent an emerging technology that promotes the development of high-throughput drug screening and precision personalized therapy. At the same time, the integrated culture of breast cancer organoid models with immune cells or endothelial cells and microfluidic chips was also explored. This approach enhances the complexity of the in vitro tumor microenvironment, making it closer to the human microenvironment, thereby improving the authenticity and reliability of preclinical research data. Compared with traditionally statically cultured breast cancer organoids, it possesses more dynamic regulatory characteristics and is more accurate in simulating the tumor microenvironment. The aim of the study is to discuss the applications of breast cancer organoids and to incorporate new technologies into traditional breast cancer organoid models, making the research outcomes more clinically relevant.

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