Fig. 6: Drug treatment of sMOCS highlights inter- and intra-patient variability in response.

a, b Comparison of the response of sMOCS vs 2D cultures to drug treatment. sMOCS and 2D cultures were treated with carboplatin (untreated, 5 µM, 10 µM, 25 µM, 50 µM, 75 µM). Cell viability was measured with CellTiter-Glo^® 3D Cell Viability Assay (for sMOCS) and CellTiter-Glo^® Luminescent Cell Viability Assay (for 2D cultures). a Results obtained from three independent naive patient samples, shown as means + SD. P value was calculated by a two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test, and the difference among monoclonal-derived spheroids and 2D cultures resulted statistically significant: 0.0262. b Data obtained from cells derived from a patient sample after chemotherapy (post-chemotherapy), at relapse, shown as means + SD. P value was calculated as above: 0.0454. c, d Intrapatient heterogeneity of response to drug treatment using sMOCS. P2 sMOCS were dissociated and cells seeded at 500 cells/well, and then derived spheroids were treated with carboplatin (untreated, 50 µM, 100 µM, 150 µM, 200 µM) and measured for cell viability as described above. In (c), spheroids at P3 derived from six cancer initiating cells of patient 17AS27 were analysed, in (d) spheroids at P3 derived from five cancer initiating cells of patient 18AS18. P values were determined by a two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test. In (c), the following pairs showed a significant P value: #1 vs #2: 0.0152, #2 vs #4: 0.0304. Comparison of the response of sMOCS vs 2D cultures and intrapatient heterogeneity of response to drug treatment. a After 7 days, cell viability was measured.Response variability shown as percentage error between sMOCS/2D cells derived from 6 patients. b, c Spheroids were treated with carboplatin (untreated, 50 µM, 100 µM, 150 µM, 200 µM) and measured for cell viability. In (b), spheroids derived from six individual cell clones of patient 17As27 were analysed, in (c) spheroids derived from five individual cell clones of patient 18As18.