Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Effectiveness of Chemotherapy Gauged by Optical Monitoring of Tumor Organoids

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 09 Nov 2014
Print article
Image: Time sequence shows how the test differentiates between drug-resistant tumors, top, that continue to grow and tumors that respond to the treatment, bottom, that begin to shrink. Shades of blue indicate low levels of metabolic activity while yellow and orange represent high activity levels (Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University).
Image: Time sequence shows how the test differentiates between drug-resistant tumors, top, that continue to grow and tumors that respond to the treatment, bottom, that begin to shrink. Shades of blue indicate low levels of metabolic activity while yellow and orange represent high activity levels (Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University).
Laser-modulated optical metabolic imaging of organoids derived from primary breast tumors can gauge the therapeutic response of the cancer to antitumor drugs.

Investigators at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA) generated organoids from primary breast tumors by growing biopsy specimens from the tumors in a nutrient-rich collagen gel that enabled the tumor to retain its three-dimensional structure and included supporting cells from the primary tumor's microenvironment.

Fluorescence imaging was used to monitor the metabolic state of the organoids. This technique utilized a laser that caused two key metabolic enzymes, FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) and NADH (nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide) in the cells to fluoresce, with the strength of the fluorescence dependent on the health of the organoid.

The method was tested extensively in mice and with six samples of human breast tumors using four anticancer drugs commonly used to treat breast cancer and two experimental drugs. Results revealed that as early as 24 hours after treatment with the anticancer drug, the optical metabolic imaging index of responsive organoids decreased and was further reduced when effective therapies were combined, with no change in drug-resistant organoids. Drug response in mouse xenograft-derived organoids was validated with tumor growth measurements in vivo and staining for proliferation and apoptosis.

Senior author Dr. Melissa C. Skala, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University, said: "We hit the tumor with a punch and see how it responds. It is cheap and fast and adaptable to high-throughput screening so it can be used to test dozens of drugs or drug combinations at the same time. We hope that our test will significantly improve the odds of survival of breast cancer patients by allowing doctors to identify the most effective but least toxic form of chemotherapy for each individual patient before the treatment begins.”

The study was published in the September 15, 2014, issue of the journal Cancer Research.

Related Links:

Vanderbilt University


Gold Member
Troponin T QC
Troponin T Quality Control
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Malaria Test
STANDARD Q Malaria P.f/Pan Ag
New
HIV Test
Anti-HIV (1/2) Rapid Test Kit

Print article

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.