Recent advancements in technology have significantly expanded the scope of tumor research, progressing from the study of individual cells to more intricate tissue and organ-level analyses. Tumor organoids have emerged as a highly realistic platform for investigating tumor growth, development, and their interactions with the surrounding microenvironment. However, a notable limitation of these organoids is their lack of the diverse cellular composition typically observed in actual tumors, which hinders their ability to fully replicate the complexity of the tumor microenvironment. Immune cells play a pivotal role, and tumor immunology has become a major research hotspot. Research in tumor immunology aims to elucidate how the immune system recognizes and attacks tumor cells, as well as how tumor cells evade immune surveillance. In recent years, there has been growing interest in co-culturing immune cells with tumor organoids, an approach that has yielded valuable insights into the intricate interactions between tumors and the immune system. The aim of this paper is to review and discuss the progress achieved in co-culturing tumor organoids with immune cells. By doing so, we hope to offer a new perspective and enhance our understanding of the complexity and diversity inherent in the tumor microenvironment.

Protein lysine methylation is a critical and dynamic post-translational modification that can regulate protein stability and function. This post-translational modification is regulated by lysine methyltransferases and lysine demethylases. Recent studies using mass-spectrometric techniques have revealed that in addition to histones, a great number of transcription factors are also methylated, often at multiple sites and to different degrees (mono-, di-, trimethyl lysine). The biomedical significance of transcription factor methylation in human diseases, including cancer, has been explored recently. Some studies have demonstrated that interfering with transcription factor lysine methylation both in vitro and in vivo can inhibit cancer cell proliferation, thereby reversing tumor progression. The inhibitors targeting lysine methyltransferases and lysine demethylases have been under development for the past two decades, and may be used as potential anticancer agents in the clinic. In this review, we focus on the current findings of transcription factor lysine methylation, and the effects on both transcriptional activity and target gene expression. We outlined the biological significance of transcription factor lysine methylation on tumor progression and highlighted its clinical value in cancer therapy.

Cancer heterogeneity has posed a great challenge to traditional cancer treatment, with the reappearance of cancer heterogeneity of inter and intra patients being especially critical. Based on this, personalized therapy has emerged as significant research focus in recent and even future years. Cancer-related therapeutic models are developing, including cell lines, patient-derived xenografts, organoids, etc. Organoids are three-dimensional in vitro models emerged in the past dozen years and are able to reproduce the cellular and molecular composition of the original tumor. These advantages demonstrate the great potential for patient-derived organoids to develop personalized anticancer therapies, including preclinical drug screening and the prediction of patient treatment response. The impact of microenvironment on cancer treatment cannot be underestimated, and the remodeling of microenvironment also allows organoids to interact with other technologies, among which organs-on-chips is a representative one. This review highlights the use of organoids and organs-on-chips as complementary reference tools in treating colorectal cancer from the perspective of clinical efficacy predictability. We also discuss the limitations of both techniques and how they complement each other well.

Quantum dots (QDs) represent a class of nanoscale wide bandgap semiconductors, and are primarily composed of metals, lipids, or polymers. Their unique electronic and optical properties, which stem from their wide bandgap characteristics, offer significant advantages for early cancer detection and treatment. Metal QDs have already demonstrated therapeutic potential in early tumor imaging and therapy. However, biological toxicity has led to the development of various non-functionalized QDs, such as carbon QDs (CQDs), graphene QDs (GQDs), black phosphorus QDs (BPQDs) and perovskite quantum dots (PQDs). To meet the diverse needs of clinical cancer treatment, functionalized QDs with an array of modifications (lipid, protein, organic, and inorganic) have been further developed. These advancements combine the unique material properties of QDs with the targeted capabilities of biological therapy to effectively kill tumors through photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and other means. In addition to tumor-specific therapy, the fluorescence quantum yield of QDs has gradually increased with technological progress, enabling their significant application in both in vivo and in vitro imaging. This review delves into the role of QDs in the development and improvement of clinical cancer treatments, emphasizing their wide bandgap semiconductor properties.