• health

• news

For the first time in the world: Israeli researchers have printed an active cancerous growth in three dimensions

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have printed in three dimensions a complete and active cancerous tumor of the glioblastoma type, which is considered a common and violent tumor in the brain.

After success they hope that this can help them in choosing the right and best treatment for each patient

Tags

• cancer

• 3D printing

Walla!

health

Wednesday, August 18, 2021, 9 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

• Facts about the mind

• Korean fitness challenge to achieve a flat stomach effortlessly

• Who and what dietary fiber

• A woman with a bad odor from the armpit

• Jennifer Aniston

• The shower routine of someone who is allergic to water

• Elrai Price: The closure is without obligation, the pace should be slowed ...

• Pilates exercises

• Weather Gush Dan air pollution

• A method of dealing with insomnia

• Bennett: The future of the holidays depends on the number of vaccinators 5.8.21

• Twins from different fathers

For the first time in the world - 3D printing of a cancerous growth (Tel Aviv University Press)

Although 3D printers came into our lives not many years ago, their capabilities are only getting better and they have also come into use in the medical world.

Recently, and for the first time in the world, researchers from Tel Aviv University were able to print a complete and active cancerous tumor of the glioblastoma type in a three-dimensional printer.

Just two years ago, a living heart was printed at the same university on a 3D printer.

The tumor now in print includes a bifurcated system of vascular-like tubes through which blood cells and drugs can flow in a manner that mimics the true tumor.

The tumor printout is based on samples of patients taken directly from the operating rooms in the neurosurgical department at Sourasky Hospital in Tel Aviv.

The results of the new study are published today in the prestigious journal Science Advances.

More on Walla!

A first look into the corona virus that is driving the world crazy

To the full article

The study was led by Prof. Ronit Sachi-Painero of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Purple School of Neuroscience, which heads the Center for Cancer Biology Research, the Cancer and Nanomedicine Laboratory, and the Maurice Kahn 3D Printing Project. At Tel Aviv University. The new technology was developed by doctoral student Lena Neufeld together with laboratory members Ilam Yeni, Noa Reisman, Yael Stillerman, Dr. Dikla Ben-Shoshan, Sabina Putzi, Dr. Galia Tiram, Dr. Anat Eldar-Bock, and others. R. Sheeran Farber.

Microscopic photograph of the glioblastoma model printed in three dimensions (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

"Glioblastoma is the most deadly type of cancer in the central nervous system, and it accounts for most of the malignancies that originate in the brain," says Prof. Sci-Painero. "In our previous study, we first identified a protein called P-Selectin, which is secreted at the junction of glioblastoma cancer cells and microglia cells - cells of the immune system in our brain. "But we identified this protein in tumors that were removed in patient surgery - but not in the glioblastoma cells that we grew in my lab, in two dimensions on petri dishes."

According to her, the reason is that cancer, like any tissue, behaves very differently on a hard plastic surface compared to its behavior when it grows in the human body. This is one of the reasons why 90 percent of drugs fail in the clinical trials phase, simply because they fail to replicate in humans the success achieved in the laboratory.

Cancer behaves very differently on a hard plastic surface compared to when it grows in the human body.

Prof. Ronit Sachi Painero and 3D Printer (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

The research team created the first printed three-dimensional model of glioblastoma-type cancer that includes three-dimensional cancerous tissue, surrounded by an extracellular matrix and communicating with its environment through functioning and flowing blood vessels.

"It's not just the cancer cells themselves," explains Prof. Sci-Painero, "but also the microenvironment cells in the brain, astrocytes, microglia and blood vessels connected to a microfluidic system - that is, a system that allows substances to flow into the tumor, such as blood cells and drugs. "Inside a bioreactor we created in the lab, using a gel that we sampled and replicated from the extracellular matrix taken from the patient, thus simulating the tissue itself."

According to her, the brain does not have the same physical and mechanical properties of other organs such as skin, breast or bone.

"Breast tissue is mainly fat, bone tissue is mainly calcium; each tissue has different properties, and these properties affect the behavior of cancer cells and their ability to respond to drugs. Growing all cancers on the same plastic surface - far from optimally simulating the clinical condition." .

A blood vessel printed on a three-dimensional printer inside a bioreactor containing tissue that simulates the human brain together with cancer cells from a patient (Photo: Victoria Hughes) (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

Having successfully printed the three-dimensional tumor, Prof. Sci-Painero and colleagues showed that with the help of the model, it would be possible to quickly and efficiently predict the most appropriate treatment for a specific patient, as opposed to cancer cells growing in petri dishes.

According to Prof. Sci-Fainero, the experiment showed researchers how many potential drugs do not reach the clinic because they failed tests on two-dimensional models, and vice versa: some cases that were considered dizzying success in the laboratory failed the clinical trials.

More on Walla!

• Skin and tendon origin: This is what 3D organ printing looks like

• The smell burned everywhere, and was discovered to have a brain tumor

• 1-4: What do the different stages of cancer say?

• Many problems cause shoulder pain and one treatment helps all of them

"Glioblastoma is a violent disease in part because it is unexpected: if the heterogeneous cancer cells are injected separately into a model, in some, the tumor will be dormant and in some, an active tumor will develop rapidly. It makes a lot of sense that we humans can die in good health without knowing at all. "We had such 'dormant' tumors. On the other hand, on the plastic plate in the lab, all the tumors grow at the same rate and spread the same way.

According to Prof. Sci-Painero, this is an innovative approach that will also make it possible to develop new drugs as well as discover new targets for suitable drugs at a much faster rate than what exists today.

Hopefully in the future, this technology will enable customized medicine for patients.

Demonstration to illustrate brain printing by tumor within the brain environment according to a computerized three-dimensional model (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

"If I take a sample from a patient's tissue, along with its extracellular matrix, I can print out a hundred different tumors from this sample and test many drugs and combinations to find out which drug or combination of drugs is more appropriate for that specific tumor. Alternatively, development allows us to test lots. Different compounds on a tumor printed on a 3D printer, and decide which compound should invest the resources to try and develop further as a drug up to the clinical stage.But perhaps the most exciting part is finding the target proteins and target genes in the cancer cells, which is very difficult to do in tumors Patients or of model animals. "

According to her, the innovative development provides an unprecedented approach, and not limited in time, to an in-depth examination of a three-dimensional tumor that mimics the tumor found in patients in the best way.

The study was funded by the Maurice Kahn Foundation, the Israel Cancer Research Foundation (ICRF), the European Research Council (ERC), the Association for the War on Cancer, the National Science Foundation and Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments