Researchers at the University of California’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new method for bioprinting miniature tumours in the lab that behave like real tumours, allowing them to study the effect of different drugs and treatments for cancers.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, the study details the creation of miniature tumour organoids that recreate natural tumour environments in which vital cellular interactions and signalling pathways are preserved.
“Tumor organoids have become fundamental tools to investigate tumour biology and highlight drug sensitivities of individual patients,” Alice Soragni, an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a statement.
“However, we still need better ways to anticipate if resistance could be arising in a small population of cells, which we may not detect using conventional screening approaches,” she added.
The miniature tumours are grown using cell lines or patients’ own cells, offering insights into human biology and diseases, and enabling researchers to assess of tumour’s response to drugs for informed therapeutic decisions.
Older models had faced challenges in capturing the inherent heterogeneity of tumours, an aspect that is often what contributes to resistance to therapy in clinical scenarios. To solve this, the UCLA researchers combined bioprinting with extracellular proteins, recreating the natural tumour environment and preserving vital cellular interactions and signalling pathways.
By integrating bio-printed cells, high-speed live cell interferometry, and machine learning algorithms, the researchers built a way to simultaneously measure the masses of thousands of organoids, identifying their sensitivity or resistance to therapies and facilitating the selection of effective treatment options.
“By using this method, we are able to accurately measure the masses of thousands of organoids simultaneously,” Dr Michael Teitell, director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-senior author of the study, said in a statement.
“This information helps identify which organoids are sensitive or resistant to specific therapies, which can be used to quickly select the most effective treatment options for patients,” he added.
This newly developed non-invasive method can offer valuable insights into organoid growth, drug responses, and personalized treatment strategies for challenging and rare cancers. The study also found that certain drugs exerted a noticeable effect on cancer cells within as little as six hours of exposure.
The researchers said they hoped the development will enable them to find new approaches to uncover novel therapeutic avenues and mechanisms of resistance of cancer cells and eventually develop personalized treatment strategies to treat cancers.
