Table 2: Advantages, limitations, and reported solutions of organoids as study models.
| Advantages | Limitations | Reported solutions |
| Outlet to study human diseases which are difficult to study in animal models. | Loss of oncogene drive in rich growth factor conditions [37]. | Opt to use Matrigel/hydrogel devoid of growth factors [64]. |
| More complete profile of disease compared to 2D cell lines [91]. | Cost and difficulty to scale-up [95]. | Development of hanging drop protocols or magnetic cell levitation. |
| Faster reaction endpoints and quantitative data collection compared to animal studies [14,41,64,71]. | Weak vascularization leading to hypoxia which triggers activation of genes to mediate cell survival [94]. | Hypoxic conditions have been displayed in vivo and thus, might be its natural phenotype [95]. |
| More practical for immunofluorescence [14,71]. | ||
| Derivable from various tissue sources. Fibrinogen and fibroblasts which can cross-link with PEG to form hydrogel can be used to study metastasis based on stiffness of product [92,93]. |
Murine origin of Matrigel might not be compatible to be transplanted back into humans [97]. | Use other types of matrix which are compatible to humans (e.g. hydrogel). |
| Phenotype retained for up to 70 days [74]. | Rigidity of ECM component might dampen drug molecules introduced [93]. |