Progress in personalized oncology

For the implementation of personalized oncology, it is of crucial importance to develop tumor models that enable the individualized validation of cancer therapies that are particularly effective in each case. The aim of a joint research project of the Tumor Biology Group of the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute and the University Women's Hospital Tübingen was the development and characterization of a new ovarian cancer model consisting of patient-derived microtumors (PDM) and autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). Compared to other preclinical tumor models, PDM can be isolated from fresh ovarian tumor tissue samples within a short time (usually 24 hours after sample receipt). Immunohistochemical comparison of PDM with the original primary tumor tissue shows that the histopathological features of the patient's tumor are essentially preserved in PDM. Further results of this work show that the reverse phase protein array (RPPA) method can successfully identify treatment-sensitive and treatment-resistant tumor models for standard platinum-based therapy. In addition, the efficacy of tumor immunotherapies could be evaluated by co-culturing PDM and autologous TIL. PDM and TIL can therefore serve as a preclinical platform to identify individualized, tailored cancer therapies in the future.

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https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/14/12/2895