Breast cancer and obesity: organoids for personalized treatments

Breast tumor organoids represent a major advance in breast cancer research. This three-dimensional model more realistically reproduces the heterogeneity of human tumors, allowing for a better understanding of the interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment, and for testing the effectiveness of treatments. They also offer a personalized approach for each patient, reducing the need for animal experiments and facilitating the identification of appropriate therapies, particularly for overweight or obese women, who are often less responsive to standard treatments.

Thanks to Emergence funding and two mobility grants (Call for international projects “research stay for doctoral students”, Jessy Aoun, 2nd year doctoral student; Call for projects “Medium-term outgoing international mobility for research activity”, Laetitia Delort, MCU), the innovative development project of the organoid model from cells derived from patient tumors, an innovative project on the Clermont site, will see the light of day. This project is based on the creation of a collaboration between, on the one hand, two Clermont teams, the ECREIN team from the Human Nutrition Unit and the Clinical Research Division of the Jean-Perrin Cancer Center and, on the other hand, an Australian team pioneering the generation of tumor organoids.

The project has already begun with the collection of tumor samples at the Jean-Perrin Center. The tissues are ground and frozen using an optimized procedure. The two members of the ECREIN team completed their mobility within the Australian team for the generation of breast cancer organoids in June-July 2025. Upon their return from Australia, the organoids will be cultured from the samples frozen by the Jean-Perrin Center.
This model, once completed, will make it possible to respond to national and international calls for proposals to study the impact of the adipose inflammatory microenvironment observed in overweight or obese individuals and ultimately to develop personalized therapy.