Continuous imaging to evaluate growth and drug responses of patient-derived colorectal tumouroids.

Background: The use of patient-derived tumouroids is expected to have major implications in preclinical drug testing and clinical decision support. Data acquisition from these samples in drug screens, however, is often limited by time-consuming procedures, scarce screening material, and destructive, single-parameter endpoint measurements. Design: We seek to increase data collected from patient-derived tumouroids and here present a method for non-destructive, continuous image-based analysis of colorectal tumouroid growth and shape under chemotherapeutic perturbations, conducted within a clinically relevant timeframe. Results: We assessed several readouts automatically derived from continuous imaging data and concluded that tumouroid growth, and the effect of growth inhibiting drugs, can be robustly monitored by measuring the total tumouroid-covered area in images. We also found that measures of average tumouroid size, diameter, and perimeter provide complementary insights. Conclusions: Our tumouroid analysis method offers a strategy to maximise data extraction from non-destructive imaging techniques while preserving tumouroids for future research, all within a clinically relevant timeframe.