Figure 7.

Patient‐derived explants (PDE). Explants can be generated by fragmentation (PDE) or slicing (tumor slice) of fresh tumor tissue. In the left panels, representative H&E images of colorectal parental tumour tissue and derived explants (CRC‐PDE) over 4 weeks of culture; representative immunohistochemical images of T lymphocytes (CD3‐positive) and macrophages (CD68‐positive) detection on the CRC‐derived explants at weeks 2 of culture. Adapted with permission.^{[ 144 ]} Copyright 2021, MDPI. In the right panels, an example of PDE slice preparation, tumor tissue cores are collected from fresh specimens A) and placed on ice in a storage solution; then tissue cores are embedded in agarose individually B) or grouped C) and adhered to specimen disc D). The disc is placed on ice in the buffer tray with a cutting solution for slicing E). Vibratome cuts cores into tumor slices with desired thickness and placed them in a dish with medium for culture. Tumor slices can undergo evaluation for treatment response, viability, histology, imaging, and multi‐omics analyses. Adapted with permission.^{[ 131 ]} Copyright 2021, Elsevier.