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Israeli researcher Lena Neufeld from Tel Aviv University is examining a 3D model of a malignant brain tumor that arose from a patient's cells
Photo: Nir Elias / REUTERS
Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor.
It spreads quickly and is difficult to treat.
Around 60 percent of patients die within a year of diagnosis.
Scientists at Tel Aviv University are working on a new approach to tailor treatment to individual patients.
To do this, they "grow" viable tumors.
With the help of 3D printing technology, a type of copy of a tumor is created.
To do this, the doctors remove cancer cells from the patient, which in a sense serve as printing ink.
Blood is pumped through the printed tumor.
Different treatment methods can then be tested on the model in the laboratory to determine which patients respond best to.
The so-called bioprinting process and the use of the patient's cells to develop the 3D models are a "turning point in personalized medicine," said Ofra Benny from the University of Jerusalem.
"The better the copy, the more likely it is to find a drug treatment that patients will respond to."
"We have about two weeks to test all the therapies that we would like to try on this individual tumor in order to find an answer as to which treatment is best," explains Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, who heads the research team at the University of Tel Aviv directs.
A shrinking model tumor or slowing metabolism indicated a promising method.
New blood test detects 50 types of cancer
Most of the time, the fight against cancer is also a race against time.
The earlier the disease is recognized, the greater the chances of survival.
That is why scientists are researching special blood tests that promise rapid early detection.
One of these tests should now be able to detect more than 50 different types of cancer with the help of a single sample - and with an accuracy that allows it to be launched on the market.
Such processes are also known as liquid biopsy.
This allows blood samples to be analyzed for circulating free DNA: If cancer cells break down, tumor-typical proteins or fragments of genetic material often end up in the blood.
As part of the liquid biopsy, genome sequencing is used to detect patterns that are typical of cancer.
The "Galleri" test presented in the journal "Annals of Oncology" is based on this method.
In total, the study included 2,823 people who had already been diagnosed with cancer and a control group without cancer.
The test was able to detect cancer signals from more than 50 different types of cancer and to assign them to the corresponding tissue in almost 90 percent of the cases.
However, the reliability has fluctuated for some types of cancer.
The test was particularly reliable for some diseases for which there are no screening options so far.
For solid tumors from this area, such as esophageal, liver, and pancreatic cancer, the overall sensitivity was 66 percent.
The sensitivity in cancer of the blood was 55 percent.
In comparison, it was only 34 percent for solid tumors due to breast, colon, cervical and prostate cancer.
"These tumors probably release less DNA into the blood," said Sonja Loges, Director of the Department of Personalized Oncology at Mannheim University Hospital.
"There are also well-established early detection methods for prostate or breast cancer, so that the corresponding patients in the study group may have had an early tumor stage."
fww / rtr / dpa