{"entity":{"id":"functional-drug-testing","kind":"technology","name":"Functional (ex vivo) drug testing","aka":[],"tldr":"Growing a patient's own cancer cells in a dish and testing drugs on them directly, instead of guessing from genetics.","summary":"Patient-derived organoids and short-term ex vivo cultures (SEngine PARIS, Cancertain, Xilis, Curesponse) expose live tumour cells to drug panels. Feasibility and correlation with response are established in colorectal, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer; randomised proof of benefit is pending. Complementary to genomics when no actionable mutation exists.","status":"emerging","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_medicine","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_medicine"}],"tags":[],"related":["functional-precision-medicine-haematology","bh3-profiling","parsortix-ctc-harvest"],"cancers":[],"sections":["diagnostics","drug-discovery"],"technologies":["organoids"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["certis-oncology-solutions","known-medicine","notable-labs","origin-bio","zpredicta","kernis-health","palitra-bio","valius","specicare","storemytumor","travera","first-ascent-biomedical","kiyatec","cure-first","sagemedic","kyan-technologies","cancertain","2curex"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Fresh tumour tissue dissociated and cultured in matrix; viability read-outs per drug within 1-3 weeks.","strengths":["Phenotype captures what genotype misses","Tests combinations"],"limitations":["Take rate and timeline","No stroma or immune component in most systems"]},"route":"/technologies/functional-drug-testing/","neighbours":{"technology":[{"id":"bh3-profiling","kind":"technology","name":"BH3 profiling (functional apoptosis testing)","route":"/technologies/bh3-profiling/"},{"id":"biobanking","kind":"technology","name":"Biobanking and tissue procurement","route":"/technologies/biobanking/"},{"id":"functional-precision-medicine-haematology","kind":"technology","name":"Ex vivo drug sensitivity screening in blood cancers (EXALT)","route":"/technologies/functional-precision-medicine-haematology/"},{"id":"n-of-1-platforms","kind":"technology","name":"N-of-1 and rapid platform trials","route":"/technologies/n-of-1-platforms/"},{"id":"organoid-guided-therapy-scale","kind":"technology","name":"Organoid-guided therapy at 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