3D bioprinting for cancer modeling and drug screening

3D bioprinting has emerged as a promising preclinical technology to explore tumor cell biology, interaction with the microenvironment, and drug sensitivity. Current methods allow inclusion of several cell types within the bioprinted objects and may also be compatible with migration of immune cells within the object. 3D bioprinted tumor models have been shown to be more relevant for preclinical studies than classical 2D systems for a number of key parameters including cell morphology, cell-cell interactions, interaction with non-tumor cells, drug diffusion and sensitivity. As compared to other 3D models, bioprinting is applicable to a large variety of tumor cell lines at a relatively low cost and may be performed over a flexible period of time, ranging from a few days to several weeks. Bioprinting has also increasingly been applied to primary samples from cancer patients. In this review, we present the promises and technical hurdles yet to overcome in order for 3D bioprinting models to be fully exploited in preclinical modeling of cancer.