Altering Tumor Microenvironment Shown To Boost Response To Cancer Drugs During Live I
 

It should be possible to significantly improve the response of common cancers to existing "classical" chemotherapy drugs, say scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), by introducing agents that alter the interaction of cancer cells with their immediate surroundings, called the tumor microenvironment...

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The microenvironment contributes 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.