Human tumor organoids that respond to an anticancer drug begin shrinking within 72 hours while those that are resistant to the drug continue to grow. (Skala Lab / Vanderbilt)
Fluorescent images of breast tumor organoids show the level of metabolic activity in the pathways that the cells use to get the energy they need to divide. The blue color indicates a low activity level while orange represents a high activity level. The top two images are organoids of mouse breast tumor cells treated with the anticancer drug trastuzumab. The fact that they are predominantly blue indicates that the drug is inhibiting their growth.The bottom two images are organoids made of two different types of human breast tumor cells: triple negative on the left and an estrogen receptor on the right. (Skala Lab / Vanderbilt)
Knowing ahead of time how a tumor will respond to a specific chemo drug would go a long way toward improving individualized therapy while preventing many from needless suffering, and even death, caused by ineffective chemo.
To that end, researchers at Vanderbilt University devised a new method that allows them to see in three dimensions the structure of a tumor sample and how it responds to therapy. The tumor sample would be taken in a biopsy, broken up, and encapsulated within a collagen gel. The individual chunks are allowed to retain a volumetric structure instead of being thinly sliced as for traditional pathology. These chunks can stay alive thanks to special handling while different drugs are fed to each small sample. Using fluorescent imaging, the researchers are able to see the metabolic activity going on inside the samples and analyze how different chemo drugs are affecting them. So far, the researchers tested the technique using samples of three different breast cancer types, which allowed them to see changes in activity in samples affected by the drugs within three days. The samples that were not sensitive to the drug didn’t show much change and kept on ticking as before.
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