The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually grim: The tumors are often detected too late and are then difficult to treat. Yet a small percentage of patients survive many years after diagnosis. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH) have now grown organoids from various pancreatic tumors in the laboratory, which they used to identify individual cell types and test the effects of various drugs. This enables patient-specific diagnostics and opens up the possibility of targeted therapy. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.