Central nervous system tumors and three-dimensional cell biology: Current and future perspectives in modeling

Table 5 Features and characteristics comparison between spheroids and organoids

	Spheroids	Organoids
Cells used	Cell lines or CSCs	Embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells or CSCs
Physiologic relevance	Lower	Higher
Tumor heterogeneity	Lower	Higher
Technique difficulty	Lower	Higher
Cost	Lower	Higher
Time	Weeks	1-3 mo
Genetic manipulation	Moderately available	Moderately available
Biobanks	Not available (cells are difficult to maintain long-term)	Available
Advantages	Cost effective; Highly accessible; Good for high throughput drug testing	Retains tumor heterogeneity; Better simulation of the physiological environment
Disadvantages	Hard to maintain long-term; Not as representative of the physiologic environment	More complex; Higher failure rate; May give variable results

CSC: Cancer stem cell.