Sarcomas are tumours of mesenchymal origin, which can arise in bone or soft tissues. They are rare but frequently quite aggressive and with a poor outcome. New approaches are needed to characterise these tumours and their resistance mechanisms to current therapies, responsible for tumour recurrence and treatment failure. This review is focused on the potential of three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models, including multicellular tumour spheroids (MCTS) and organoids, and the latest data about their utility for the study on important properties for tumour development. The use of spheroids as a particularly valuable alternative for compound high throughput screening (HTS) in different areas of cancer biology is also discussed, which enables the identification of new therapeutic opportunities in commonly resistant tumours.

肉瘤是间充质起源的肿瘤，可发生在骨骼或软组织中。它们很少见，但经常具有侵略性，并且效果不佳。需要新的方法来表征这些肿瘤及其对当前疗法的耐药机制，从而导致肿瘤复发和治疗失败。这篇综述着重于三维（3D）体外模型的潜力，包括多细胞肿瘤球体（类）和类器官，以及有关它们在研究肿瘤发展的重要特性方面的效用的最新数据。还讨论了将球体用作癌症生物学不同领域中的复合高通量筛选（HTS）的特别有价值的替代方法，这使得能够确定常见耐药性肿瘤的新治疗机会。