ReviewDrug discovery today. Technologies2017
The production of 3D tumor spheroids for cancer drug discovery.
Review in Drug discovery today. Technologies, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 205 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
205 citing papers in PubMed, 392 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antitumor Efficacy of Apatinib and Etoposide-Loaded D-α-Tocopheryl Polyethylene Glycol Succinate Mixed Micelles Against Multidrug-Resistant Ovarian Cancer Cells.Pharmaceutics · 2026Article
- Mechanical fingerprints in breast cancer research: A multimodal experimental approach.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Article
- Advantages and research progress of three-dimensional culture systems for lung cancer drug screening (Review).Oncology letters · 2026Review
- The Future of Protozoan Infection Research: 3D Cell Culture and beyond.ACS infectious diseases · 2026Review
- TheMaterials today. Bio · 2026Review
- Physiologically Relevant Organotypic Tissue Slice Model for Evaluating Cell Responses to Ionizing Radiation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Three-Dimensional Influence of Photobiomodulation on Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Behavior.Journal of biophotonics · 2026Article
- Review
- Machine learning-supported identification of necrosis in colorectal and pancreatic cancer spheroids.PloS one · 2026Article
- Alternatives to animal models in gastroenterology and hepatology research.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Insight into the pathogenesis of interstitial lung diseases and near-to-native lung fibrosis models.European journal of medical research · 2025Review
- Development of a liquid overlay-based three-dimensional cell culture panel for drug screening applications.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Advancement in Scaffold-Based 3D Cell Culture Models for Osteosarcoma Drug Screening.ACS biomaterials science & engineering · 2025Review
- HCS-3DX, a next-generation AI-driven automated 3D-oid high-content screening system.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Targeting EGFR/IGF-IR Functional Crosstalk in 2D and 3D Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models to Evaluate Tumor Progression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring bone-tumor interactions through 3DJournal of bone oncology · 2025Review
- Article
- A method for dissociation of oral cancer cell spheroids generated by magnetic 3D bioprinting.Cytotechnology · 2025Article
- Narciclasine enhances cisplatin-induced apoptotic cell death by inducing unfolded protein response-mediated regulation of NOXA and MCL1.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2025Article
- Representation of high-dimensional cell morphology and morphodynamics in 2D latent space.Physical biology · 2025Article
145 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
New cancer drug approval rates are ≤5% despite significant investments in cancer research, drug discovery and development. One strategy to improve the rate of success of new cancer drugs transitioning into the clinic would be to more closely align the cellular models used in the early lead discovery with pre-clinical animal models and patient tumors. For solid tumors, this would mandate the development and implementation of three dimensional (3D) in vitro tumor models that more accurately recapitulate human solid tumor architecture and biology. Recent advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have provided new techniques for 3D spheroid generation and a variety of in vitro 3D cancer models are being explored for cancer drug discovery. Although homogeneous assay methods and high content imaging approaches to assess tumor spheroid morphology, growth and viability have been developed, the implementation of 3D models in HTS remains challenging due to reasons that we discuss in this review. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to achieve acceptable HTS assay performance metrics occurs in 3D tumor models that produce spheroids with highly variable morphologies and/or sizes. We highlight two methods that produce uniform size-controlled 3D multicellular tumor spheroids that are compatible with cancer drug research and HTS; tumor spheroids formed in ultra-low attachment microplates, or in polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate hydrogel microwell arrays.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.