Discover personalized drug opportunity and optimized tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy for rare cancer: an organoid-based whole-journey clinical mapping study in a neuroendocrine cancer patient.

PURPOSE: Rare cancer patients face dire prognoses due to high malignancy and scarce treatment options, underscoring an imperative for personalized strategies. This study aims to evaluate the potential of precision medicine to extend survival in rare cancer patients by leveraging personalized tumor organoids (PTOs) as a discovery platform to comprehensively explore and generate new treatment opportunities.

METHODS

We performed whole-journey clinical mapping in a neuroendocrine cervical cancer (NECC) patient with chemo-resistant metastases. Longitudinal PTOs from three recurrent lesions and autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were established to correlate clinical responses and discover new therapies. A co-culture system integrating PTOs and autologous TILs was developed to replicate clinical responses and optimize TIL therapy through rebuilding tumor antigen microenvironment.

RESULTS

PTOs recapitulated tumor evolution and resistance imprints, enabling identification of a highly effective targeted therapy candidate post-chemotherapy failure. The co-culture system faithfully mirrored clinical immunotherapy responses, validating its potential as a companion diagnostic. Utilizing PTOs to rebuild the autologous tumor antigen microenvironment during TIL production generated a personalized, optimized TIL population. These optimized TILs exhibited enhanced anti-tumor ability and their administration correlated with clinical tumor regression in the patient. Generalizability of this PTO-based optimization strategy was validated across both patients and cancer types.

CONCLUSION

This study establishes that survival for rare cancer patients hinges on integrated, personalized companion diagnostics and therapy optimization. By bridging iterative tumor models with clinical interventions, we provide a scalable conceptual framework to overcome therapeutic nihilism and unlock precision-driven survival benefits.