[Animal modeling] - Cancer 3D models can be used to customize optimal therapies

  According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) technology news sharing platform EurekAlert! On the 8th, scientists from the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine in the United States have collaborated with a local biotechnology company to create a three-dimensional tumor model that may replicate a real tumor. Researchers believe that this model can help them better understand tumor diseases and accelerate the development of better new therapies.

  The report states that this multicellular model can also customize the tumor development morphology of specific patients, so that doctors can determine the tumor's response to different drugs and determine the optimal treatment plan based on simple biopsies. "This model is a way for us to systematically identify and test cancer therapies by understanding the internal working mechanisms of tumors," said Dan Gilley, Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at UVA and a research institute at the UVA Research Center

  The new model can simulate the tumor "microenvironment" of pancreatic cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, and may also help to deal with many types of solid tumors, so that scientists can better understand how cancer cells grow, spread and develop, as well as their drug resistance. The new model also combines hemodynamics and biological transport modes, reflecting the complexity of cancer by integrating different cell types found in tumors, including vascular endothelial cells, providing important perspectives and methods for the development of new therapies.

  It is understood that Gilley will present the new model at the 2018 Oncology 3D Tissue Modeling Science Conference this week.