Establishment of two dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) melanoma primary cultures as a tool for in vitro drug resistance studies

Characteristics of melanoma cells have been deciphered by studies carried out in two dimensional cell cultures growing as adherent monolayers on the bottom of plastic flasks. Melanoma cells can be cultured with a considerable degree of success, and, depending on the further use of the cells obtained in the culture, methodologies have to be adjusted to obtain reliable results. Although there are many melanoma continuous cell lines, in vitro 2D and 3D melanoma primary cell culture may be a more useful model to investigate interactions between cancer cells and immune system, as well as the effect of cytotoxic treatments and personalized medicine in environments more similar to the physiological conditions. Here, we described a protocol which employs many strategies to obtain primary 2D and 3D melanoma cultures as a model to study cell–cell and cell–microenvironment interactions that must be considered to properly design personalized cancer treatments, as well as for testing novel anticancer drugs and drug delivery vehicles.