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Canadian researchers from the Tissue Tinker company at the University McGill printed cancerous tumors on a 3D printer as part of a study oncological diseases.
The Tissue Tinker project was created by a team of scientists from McGill Innovation Fund to improve the drug testing protocol for oncology treatment. This technology is customizable, which makes it easier to optimize treatment for the specific needs of patients.
Cancer tumors are printed from a biomaterial that mimics human tissue. In particular, researchers can print tissue models by creating a healthy sample and one affected by cancer cells. In this way, they can study disease development in practice.
The printing capabilities allow for the creation of extremely small samples, about 300 microns. According to one of the co-founders of Tissue Tinker Benjamin Ringler, these sizes are optimal for research because they allow us to observe specific properties of cancer cells. In particular, inside tumors there are areas with low oxygen content — hypoxic nuclei, which are easier to study on small samples.
In addition, scientists can make any changes to the printed tissue, which allows them to focus on specific areas of cancer research. For example 3D printing requires special equipment, the specifics of which, however, are not disclosed by scientists.
In 2020, 10 million people died of cancer, and by 2040, the number of deaths is expected to increase to 28.4 million. Global spending on cancer control in the period from 2016 to 2020 reached $24.5 billion.
«The biggest obstacle to the development of effective anti-cancer drugs is the reliance on outdated testing methods, primarily in animals and two-dimensional cell cultures. These methods simply do not reflect the complexity of human tumors and do not take into account the many factors that affect tumor growth and its response to treatment», — emphasize the researchers from Tissue Tinker.
As a result, the likelihood of ineffectiveness of drugs remains very high. More 90% of anticancer drugs that have passed preclinical animal trials fail in clinical trials.
«The ability to create individual tumor types really allows researchers to gain a deep and targeted understanding of cancer behavior at the micro level. Because testing conditions more closely mimic the way the human body works, researchers can better evaluate and understand whether their drug works before it reaches the clinical trial stage», — Benjamin Ringler emphasized.
Source: tom’s Hardware
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