iFIT Exzellenzcluster - Seminar Series & Lunch & Learn Sessions

In the era of personalized medicine, the ability of pre-selecting individualized therapeutic options and pre-defining their suitability in advance of clinical treatment might facilitate decision making in cancer therapy and hence, improve patient outcome. At the same time, it is crucial to design a model system that reflects the influence of the tumor microenvironment and cellular heterogeneity on drug response in order to preclinically validate anti-cancer drug efficacy,

We have established a 3D model system comprised of patient-derived microtumors (PDM), and autologous tumor-infiltrated lymphocytes (TIL) from a variety of solid cancer types that can be subjected to downstream analyses within 2-3 days after isolation and is free from animal components. 

In my talk I will present data from histological and immunohistochemical as well as protein signaling pathway characterization of PDM in comparison to corresponding primary tumor tissue. Moreover, I will summarize results from compound efficacy testing assays and immunophenotyping analyses of PDM cultures in the presence and absence of autologous TIL populations.