Developing a Patient-derived Model of Cholangiocarcinoma Using Precision Cut Tissue Slices (PCTS)

Purpose: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is an aggressive cancer with increasing incidence and poor prognosis. The development of new chemo-therapeutic strategies that prolong survival and reduce recurrence post-surgery are required. Accurate models that recapitulate in-vivo tumour biology are essential to understanding factors associated with therapeutic response/resistance and also serve as a platform for novel drug discovery. Precision-cut tumour slices (PCTS) are patient-derived whole tissue explants that can be cultured ex-vivo. By retaining the source tumour micro-environment, they recapitulate critical aspects of cancer biology, a significant advantage over 3D organoid culture. Our aim is to establish and validate the use of the PCTS technique in creating a patient-derived model of CCA.