Lab-grown tumor models could lead to improved ovarian cancer treatments

Scientists have created a three-dimensional (3-D) tumor model in the laboratory for ovarian cancer that could lead to improved understanding and treatment of the disease. The international team, led by the University of Nottingham and Queen Mary University London have created a multicellular 3-D microenvironment that recreates the way tumor cells grow in ovarian cancer and respond to chemotherapy drugs. The research has been published today in Science Advances.

There is a need for improved 3-D cancer models to study tumor growth and progression in patients and test responses to new treatments. At present, 90% of successful cancer treatments tested pre-clinically fail in the early phases of clinical trials and less than 5% of oncology drugs are successful in clinical trials. Pre-clinical tests mostly rely on a combination of two-dimensional (2-D) lab grown cell cultures and animal models to predict responses to treatment.

However, conventional 2-D cell cultures fail to mimic key features of tumor tissues and interspecies differences can result in many successful treatments in animal hosts being ineffective in humans. Consequently, novel experimental 3-D cancer models are needed to better recreate the human tumor microenvironment and incorporate patient-specific differences.

The new hydrogel biomaterial is made by the co-assembly of peptides with proteins found in ovarian cancer. The mechanism of formation enables the peptides to assemble these proteins into molecular environments, emulating how they are presented in the patient tumor.

Reference: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/40/eabb3298