From reproductive tumors the way to more effective therapies

(ANSA) - ROME, APRIL 27 - Predicting the therapeutic efficacy of drugs, even experimental ones, even not necessarily designed for that specific tumor, using parts of the same neoplastic tissue (organoid) on patients affected by damelanoma: this is the target focus on which working, in collaboration with various associated institutes, the Melanoma Working Group of the Alliance Against Cancer, the National Oncology Network founded by the Ministry of Health.

    "Predicting a therapeutic path means making the patient gain precious time by avoiding therapies that would not work and saving huge resources redirected elsewhere", explains Giandomenico Russo, coordinator of the WorkingGroup, according to whom "the increasing availability of therapies in the near future,

    Organoid culture, an innovative model in use in biomedical research that reproduces in vitro the three-dimensional structure of human organs and tissues, has replaced the cellular one "which did not allow to reproduce reliable despairing conditions due to the absence of native microenvironment consisting of other cell populations: immune, collagen , fibroblasts ".

The Institutes involved - Idi and Ifo of Rome, Irccs Giovanni Paolo II of Bari, Ieo and the National Cancer Institute of Milan and Irccs Irst Dino Amadori of Meldola, all associated with the Network - are applying four different organoid-type technologies to identify the best solution.

"In the first - explains Russo - the tissue is soaked in collagen particles;

in the second it is placed in a micro-fluidic chamber where different substances are administered;

in the third, skin cells are mixed with tumor cells;

in the fourth a bioreactor is used where the cancer cells are made to grow so that they stabilize with the accessory ones ".

    Melanomas, says the president of Alleanza contro ilCancro, Ruggero De Maria, "create a protective environment around them that must be faithfully reproduced in the laboratory to understand how to identify the best therapeutic combinations for each patient; the work of the Working Group is fundamental because it uses a series of new technologies to faithfully reproduce the tumors of different patients and their protective micro-environment, so as to be able to rapidly develop personalized and much more effective therapies ".

   (HANDLE).