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That's a very good question to bring up on this subject Kristin! There are very good reasons for having a minimum of viable tumor specimen. Doing anything less than that will not have the "accuracy" this type of phenotype analysis has. It has to do with the microenvironment contributing critically to drug response.
By examining drug-induced cell death events in native-state 3D (three dimensional) microclusters, the functional cytometric profiling platform has the unique capacity to capture stromal, cytokines (chemokines), macrophages, lymphocytes, vascular and inflammatory cell interactions with tumor cells, known to be crucial for clinical response prediction.
The microclusters recapitulate the human tumor environment, while the "3D" advancement recreates the extracellular matrix (metalloproteinases). The platform studies cancer response to drugs within this microenvironment, enabling it to provide clinically relevant predictions to cancer patients. It is this capacity to study human tumor microenvironments that distinguishes it from other platforms in the field.
What about the fibroblast matrix, the lymphatic vessels, the infiltrating monocytes, the T-cells, the B-cells and neutrophils: the vast complexities of the human tumor microenvironment? Real-life cancers grow as a complex organism that includes both malignant and non-malignant components.
It may include fibrous tissue, mesothelial cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, etc. In order to exhibit its most characteristic behavior patterns, a cancer cell needs to be surrounded by a colony of other cells, both normal and malignant.
Tumors are very complex organisms. Ignoring this complexity, most studies of human cancer in culture have focused upon individual tumor cells that have been removed from their complex microenvironment.
Some previous methods of assays limited their analysis only to isolated tumor cells and failed to incorporate the crucial contribution of non-tumorous elements to the cancer phenomenon. Each of these microspheres contains all the complex elements of tumor biosystems that are found in the human body and which can impact clinical response.
Doing anything less is doing it on the cheap! And that doesn't help the cancer patient.
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