Tumoroid formation using bone scaffolds
Most primary tumorsm such as breast or prostate cancerm are able to metastasize to the bone marrow, leading to secondary bone cancer. Although cancer is widely studied, little is known about bone cancer and even less is known about cancers' ability to metastasize to different organs – despite the fact that metastases are often more dangerous than the primary tumor and are responsible for 90% of all cancer deaths (DW, Science). An important tool for heightening our cancer and metastasis knowledge is in vitro tumor models such as tumoroids on bone scaffolds.
Cell growth support structures like the P3D Scaffolds can be used to co-culture human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and cancer cell lines on structures that resemble native human bone. The scaffolds mimic the bone environment found in the human body, and thereby secure that cells develop and migrate on the scaffold like they would inside the body.
By adding hMSCs and cancer cells onto the bone-like structures, you can grow a tumor replica on a lifelike bone environment. This model system can then be used to study bone cancer progression and be subjected to chemotherapeutic treatment to perform accurate assessments of chemotherapies and novel anticancer drugs, as well as predictions of patient outcomes.
What are the advantages of 3D tumor models?
In general, animal models and 2D human cell lines have little similarity to human tissue. By utilizing 3D tumoroid models, such as the P3D Scaffold, researchers are able to imitate human bone tissue, obtain reliable results and ultimately better understand the complex dynamics and interplay of cancers occurring in vivo by using standard in vitro methods. The tumoroid models are furthermore ideal for screening of anticancer therapies as the tumoroid models enable realistic testing which results in reliable data when subsequently translated.
Thus, while animal models and traditional 2D human cell lines are not always reliable ways to predict how cancer or pharmaceutical treatments will affect humans, disease modeling and drug screening of human organs or tumors grown on scaffolds offer very promising alternative methods.
By 3D culturing stem cells and cancer cells on the scaffolds, you can create a good, predictive cancerous tumor model that translates accurate findings to human pathology.