Breast Cancer Tissue Bioreactor for Direct Interrogation and Observation of Response to Antitumor Therapies.

摘要

Tumor tissue is made up of tumor cells and other surrounding cell types in its microenvironment. This diseased tissue frequently exists in specialized tumor microenvironment such as being less oxygenated and more acidic than healthy tissue. These states profoundly impact anti-tumor drug efficacy. For disease diagnosis, a tumor is frequently biopsied. We believe that if we can maintain a biopsied portion of the tumor tissue in a similar tumor microenvironment, that we can preserve the exact same tumor cellular functions ex vivo. The objective of this project is to develop biomicroelectromechanical systems (BioMEMs), the Breast Cancer Tissue BioReactor that will support the combination of the 3-D culture methodology with control over microenvironmental oxygen and matrix stiffness to better approximate the in vivo tumor microenvironment ex vivo. This setting then would allow testing of anti-tumor drug responsiveness using a patient's own tumor tissue targeted with anti-drug therapeutics. We will test our BCTB using mouse models of breast cancer.