Contents
A Geneva research team has succeeded for the first time in growing small tumor avatars from lung cancer cells in the laboratory. This opens the way to personalized treatment.
The statistics on lung cancer are not encouraging: only one in four people who develop a lung tumor is still alive five years after diagnosis. Lung cancer is responsible for almost 20 percent of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
“There are many forms of lung cancer,” says biologist Véronique Serre-Beinier from the University Hospital of Geneva. Not everyone would respond equally well to the different treatment methods.
We test outside the patient, on cell cultures, which drugs are effective – and which are not
Serre-Beinier wants to use her research to increase the chances of survival from lung cancer – with a personalized approach. The therapy should be tailored to the respective patient and the specific profile of “his” tumor. With a detour via the laboratory: “We test outside the patient, on cell cultures, which drugs are effective – and which are not,” says Serre-Beinier.
Tumor avatars grow floating
Testing in the laboratory whether tumor samples respond to certain drugs: This is already known in cancer medicine. But Véronique Serre-Beinier’s cell cultures are special: they are three-dimensional. She has succeeded in cultivating small mini-tumors in the laboratory that have grown from patients’ cancer cells.
It is the first time a research team has achieved this in lung cancer:
“In the incubators of our laboratory we first multiplied the cells in the traditional way; classic means: two-dimensional. Then, with enough cells, we let them grow into three-dimensional mini-tumors,” explains the biologist.
These tumor avatars developed in limbo, so to speak. They don’t need a matrix, i.e. a supporting structure, in order to grow. “After 15 to 20 days they are sufficiently robust to be exposed to medication.”
In addition to chemotherapy, lung cancer is treated with targeted therapies. Mutations in the cancer cells are attacked directly – an efficient method. The crux of the matter: 30 to 40 percent of patients develop resistance – their tumor cells adapt to the treatment.
“With the help of mini tumors in the laboratory, such resistance can be avoided,” says Serre-Beinier. Side effects of chemotherapy could also be reduced in this way.
New methods stimulate each other
The idea of testing drugs on cultured mini-tumors is not new in oncology. Research is also being carried out on colon cancer and bladder cancer.
What worked in the petri dish or in the experimental setting may not work in the patient.
Jakob Passweg is chief physician at the University Hospital of Basel and president of the Swiss Cancer Research Foundation. He finds the approach of the Geneva research team interesting. In cancer research, it is often the case that new methods cross-fertilize each other. But he also has reservations about the cultured mini-tumors: “Cell cultures are not the same as cancer cells in the body,” says the hematologist. “What worked in the petri dish or in the experimental setting may not work in the patient.” That’s why this method needs to be tested rigorously in clinical studies, says Jakob Passweg.
This is the current status of lung mini-tumors. Véronique Serre-Beinier says the next step is a pilot study with patients.
If everything goes well, the method could be used in hospitals in three to five years.