Funding tool: Basic research projects
Project-ID: LS11-013
Project start: 01. Oktober 2012
Project end: will follow
Runtime: 36 months / finished
Funding amount: € 299.000,00

Brief summary:

The intense cancer research efforts of the last decades have provided insight into the molecular mechanisms of cancer development. Based on these findings advanced targeted therapies have been developed that selectively inactivate oncogenic signaling pathways. As a result the proliferation and the survival of the tumor is inhibited and cancer cell death is induced. However, due to the genetic heterogeneity of tumors only a small fraction of the patients exhibit a significant response to the therapies. In present personalized medicine strategies the genotype-drug response relationships are investigated to identify patient subgroups that are likely to maximally benefit from the targeted treatments. Depending on the tumor and the type of therapy several defined genetic fingerprints have recently been identified that serve as clinical biomarkers that can predict drug response with varying success. At the University of Applied Sciences in Krems we are developing alternative technologies to experimentally assess the therapy response in miniaturized and extracorporeal tumor tissue equivalents. In close collaboration with the clinics in Lower Austria we are establishing advanced cell/tissue engineering technologies to propagate miniaturized whole cancer slices for a prolonged period of time in culture. The major goal is to preserve the complex anatomical and physiological features of the tumor in vitro. In the complex tissue models we can additionally assess the contribution of the tumor stroma to cancer cell aggressiveness and drug response. In parallel we are developing tissue/cell-based assays to quantitatively determine the effects of the drugs on cancer cell growth, survival, apoptosis, senescence and invasion. The novel models will represent ideal tools to test the efficacy of a large number of (combinatorial) therapies and to select the most appropriate drugs for the right patients. Taken together, the organotypic tissue models will open up new vistas in the field of personalized medicine and in clinical oncology.

Keywords:
cancer, tissue engineering, personalized cancer therapy

Results