Scientists Find a New Groundbreaking Strategy Through Fresh Tumor Biopsies To Improve Cancer Treatments
Brain biopsy under stereotaxy
A groundbreaking strategy to enhance treatments for cancer through the use of tumor biopsies less than half an hour after they are taken has recently been devised at The University of Queensland.
The technique known as the "Drug update in ex Vivo tumors" was developed following the discovery of scientists of "fresh patient tumor biopsies" responding differently to treatments compared to the tissue cultures used in a traditional way.
According to this new technology's inventor, Dr. Fiona Simpson, from the UQ Diamantina Institute, the innovative technique could be utilized "to show long antibodies" remained active in patients, or when they were "brought into the tumor where they are destroyed."
This invention, Dr. Simpson added, will considerably help both pharmaceutical and technology firms develop cancer drugs in the future.
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The Need to Test Cancer Drugs on Fresh Tumors
Simpson said, up to now, scientists have only been looking at the manner cancer drugs are interacting with tissue culture and "not fresh tumors."
Applying medications to tissue culture, the medical expert explained, is not always effective as the immune system reacts differently in the body.
Dr. Simpson added, she thought "it was pretty obvious that" there is a need to test cancer medicines on fresh tumors. However, she said, people kept telling her team that "it would not work."
This groundbreaking strategy consists of a step-by-step procedure to help pharmaceutical companies and scientists understand further how cancer drugs are interacting with patients, and react to targeted treatments.
The research team has developed a complete process that includes detailed videos on the extraction of a tumor, as well as testing processes of the drug, for scientists across the globe to use.
Such a strategy, Dr. Simpson said, is useful for all cancer types and they are "very excited about its probabilities.
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Biopsies Used to Identify Cancer
Samples of cell or tissue can be removed from nearly any body part. How these samples are removed depends according to the location of the tumor and what cancer type is being suspected.
For example, the procedures used for skin biopsies are quite different from those that are used "for brain biopsies."
Some types of biopsies take out an entire organ, but they are performed only by surgeons. Other biopsy types, on the other hand, remove samples of a tumor by using a thin needle or by means of an endoscope.
An endoscope is a "flexible lighted tube" inserted into the body. Most of the time, these biopsies are done by surgeons, although other doctors can also perform them.
Similar Study in the Past
In 2019, a similar study pertaining to applying drugs to fresh tumors. In this particular research, authors call the technique "precision medicine" which aims to utilize "patient genomic, epigenomic" and a particular dose of the drug, as well as other relevant data to identify patterns of disease that may probably result in an enhanced treatment result.
Customized dosing regimens according to drug penetration, according to the said study, play a vital role in this particular approach. Innovative strategies to gauge tumor drug penetration concentrate in orderly exposure, penetration of tissue, molecular or cellular engagement, and "expression of pharmacological activity."
The researchers' visualization of "how to apply tumor drug penetration measurements," provides a roadmap for the clinical execution of accurate dosing. More so, the study authors aimed to find out if such tumor drug penetration could be the "missing piece" to treat particular cancer.
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Aug 26, 2020 07:20 AM EDT
