Emerging Hydrophobized Surfaces for Rapid Fabrication of 3D Tumor Models

The development of hydrophobized platforms to build up tailored 3D in vitro tumor models, for screening anticancer therapies, is currently gaining remarkable momentum. Such focus is related to the unique water repellent properties of hydrophobic surfaces, which promote the production of spherically structured models and cells’ self-assembly into dense 3D agglomerates. Considering this potential, herein we showcase the most recent advances in precision engineered hydrophobized surfaces and discuss their valuable features for establishing 3D in vitro tumor models with reproducible size, morphology, and biochemical/biophysical hallmarks. An in-depth overview of disruptive studies employing hydrophobized surfaces for 3D miniaturized tumor models fabrication and preclinical drug screening is provided, along with a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. Overall, we envision that hydrophobized platforms evolution will contribute to the generation of 3D in vitro models that more accurately recapitulate features of human tumors and that are also easily scalable for high-throughput/high-content imaging platforms.