Teams reported two complementary advances for evaluating cancer therapies ex vivo and in situ. A live tumor fragment platform enables functional testing of immunotherapies on intact tumor microenvironments, allowing dynamic response readouts that preserve cell–cell and tumor–stroma interactions. The platform aims to predict patient-specific responses and screen combinations rapidly. Separately, single-cell transcriptomic profiling in liver cancer identified discrete fibroblast populations that shape tumor behavior and therapy response. Authors mapped fibroblast subsets with distinct pro-tumorigenic programs and secretomes, linking them to immune suppression and extracellular matrix remodeling. Taken together, the live-fragment assay and single-cell fibroblast atlas provide actionable frameworks: the fragment platform offers a functional testing bed while the cellular map nominates stromal targets to combine with immunotherapy.