PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New 3D-printed tumor model enables faster, less expensive and less painful cancer treatment

Researchers combining bioprinting with synthetic chips to understand tumors in 3D

2023-10-16
(Press-News.org)

An international team of interdisciplinary researchers has successfully created a method for better 3D modelling of complex cancers. 

The University of Waterloo-based team combined cutting-edge bioprinting techniques with synthetic structures or microfluidic chips. The method will help lab researchers more accurately understand heterogeneous tumours: tumours with more than one kind of cancer cell, often dispersed in unpredictable patterns. 

Traditionally, medical practitioners would biopsy a patient’s tumour, extract cells, and then grow them in flat petri dishes in a lab. “For fifty years, this was how biologists understood tumours,” said Nafiseh Moghimi, an applied mathematics post-doctoral researcher and the lead author of the study. “But a decade ago, repeated treatment failures in human trials made scientists realize that a 2D model does not capture the real tumour structure inside the body.” 

The team’s research addresses this problem by creating a 3D model that not only reflects the complexity of a tumour but also simulates its surrounding environment. 

The research, which took place in the Mathematical Medicine Lab under the supervision of applied mathematics professor Mohammad Kohandel, united advancements from several disciplines. “We are creating something that is very, very new in Canada. Maybe just a couple of labs are doing something even close to this research,” Moghimi said.

First, the team created polymer “microfluidic chips”: tiny structures etched with channels that mimic blood flow and other fluids surrounding a patient’s tumour. 

Next, the team grew multiple types of cancer cells and suspended these cell cultures in their own customized bioink: a cocktail of gelatine, alginate, and other nutrients designed to keep the cells cultures alive. 

Finally, they used an extrusion bioprinter – a device that resembles a 3D printer but for organic material – to layer the different types of cancer cells onto the prepared microfluidic chips. 

The result is a living, three-dimensional model of complex cancers that scientists can then use to test different modes of treatment, such as various chemotherapy drugs. 

Moghimi and her team are particularly interested in creating complex models of breast cancer. After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women. 

Breast cancer is especially challenging to treat because it appears as complex tumours containing multiple types of cells when it metastasizes. Relying on the cells from one or two biopsies to accurately represent an entire tumour can lead to ineffective treatment plans and poor outcomes.

The 3D-printed tumour models exemplify how new technology enables faster, less expensive and less painful treatments for serious conditions like late-stage breast cancer. 

The research, “Controlled tumour heterogeneity in a co-culture system by 3D bio-printed tumor-on-chip model,” appears in Nature.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

UK needs AI legislation to create trust so companies can ‘plug AI into British economy’ – report

2023-10-16
UK will struggle to build new AI models that compete with ChatGPT and big US tech firms, despite the government's “Frontier AI Taskforce”, say researchers. To boost the economy, UK should focus on developing products that apply “generative AI” to daily life, including tax breaks for businesses investing in AI skills. Legislation regulating AI safety and transparency is needed, so British industry and education can confidently put time and resource into AI development. The British government should offer tax breaks for businesses developing AI-powered products and services, or applying AI ...

New threat to Antarctic fur seals

2023-10-16
Antarctic fur seals that were hunted to near extinction have recovered but now face dangerous decline because of a lack of food, new research suggests. The study of fur seals, almost all of which live on the sub-Antarctic islands of South Georgia, shows that the modern-day population peaked in 2009 at about 3.5 million – a healthy number, although significantly less than previously estimated. But a more detailed count of animals living on a particular South Georgia island called Bird Island also shows the seals are ...

New research reveals forgotten lives of Eurasian otters in Hong Kong

2023-10-16
Researchers have gained new insights into the lives and losses of Eurasian otters in Hong Kong, as detailed in a paper published by Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of international wildlife conservation charity Fauna & Flora. Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest metropolises, and the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra is among its most threatened wildlife. Dependence on lowland wetlands makes it particularly susceptible to human disturbance. Moreover, the low-lying region within Hong Kong where most otters can be found has been earmarked for a government-led mega ...

Opioid use disorder treatment associated with decreased risk of overdose after surgery, suggests first-of-its-kind study of over 4 million surgeries

2023-10-16
SAN FRANCISCO — Although people with opioid use disorder (OUD) are significantly more likely to overdose or have a complication after major surgery than those without the disorder, using medications for the treatment of OUD before surgery may eliminate that extra risk, suggests a large, first-of-its-kind study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting.   Patients with OUD who didn’t use an OUD medication (such as buprenorphine or methadone) were over four times more likely to overdose after having surgery, yet those who used evidence-based OUD medication ...

Babies with a low birthweight are four times more likely to develop fatty liver disease in later life, new study shows

2023-10-16
(16 October 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark) A groundbreaking new study, presented today at UEG Week 2023, has discovered a significant connection between birthweight and the onset of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease*, now known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), in young people.1 Most notably, babies with a low birthweight were found to be four times more likely to develop MASLD in childhood, adolescence or young adulthood.1 To investigate this link, a team of researchers from Sweden used the nationwide ESPRESSO cohort and conducted a population-based case-control study of all ...

Gut microbiome variations could predict colorectal cancer risk, new study finds

2023-10-16
(Monday, 16 October 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark) New research has identified significant variations in the gut microbiome of individuals who developed pre-cancerous colonic lesions, suggesting a potential connection between gut bacteria and the onset of colorectal lesions and cancers.1 These findings, presented today at UEG Week 2023, open promising new avenues for enhancing the detection and prevention of colorectal cancer.1 The large-scale prospective study, involving 8208 participants, linked data from the Dutch Microbiome ...

Black and Hispanic patients much more likely to die after surgery than white patients

2023-10-15
SAN FRANCISCO — About 12,000 Black and Hispanic patients who died after surgery the past two decades may have lived if there were no racial and ethnic disparities among Americans having surgery, suggests a study of more than 1.5 million inpatient procedures presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. This estimate draws attention to the human toll of disparities in surgical outcomes, with Black patients being 42% more likely and Hispanic patients 21% more likely to die after surgery compared to white patients. Unless efforts to narrow the racial and ethnic gap in surgical outcomes intensify, ...

Presentation of tirzepatide weight-loss study results at ObesityWeek®

2023-10-15
ROCKVILLE, Md.— After 12 initial weeks of weight loss with intensive lifestyle intervention alone, participants in the SURMOUNT-3 study who were randomly assigned to tirzepatide for 72 weeks achieved a total mean reduction in baseline body weight of 24.3% at week 84. Results of the study, conducted by Eli Lilly & Company, will be presented during the 41st Annual Meeting of The Obesity Society (TOS) at ObesityWeek® 2023 scheduled for Oct. 14–17, in Dallas, Texas. The study will be published in the journal Nature Medicine and publication will coincide with the presentation at the conference. "These are extraordinary findings, ...

Anesthesiologist-led blood management programs save hospitals significant amounts of blood and reduce costs with same or better patient outcomes

2023-10-15
SAN FRANCISCO — Blood management programs that reduced or avoided transfusions saved a health system millions of dollars annually, with a return on investment of more than $7 for every dollar spent, while achieving the same or better outcomes, suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. Over the past 10 years, the Johns Hopkins Health System established a comprehensive blood management program with two primary goals: 1) to reduce unnecessary transfusions across the five-hospital health system, and 2) to ...

Two easy fixes could reduce bleeding after cesarean delivery

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — Two simple solutions could help prevent severe bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage) after cesarean delivery, suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. As the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S. at the time of birth, postpartum hemorrhage is more common after cesarean deliveries than vaginal births. Both solutions help address uterine atony, which causes up to 80% of postpartum hemorrhage. Uterine atony is when, after delivery, the uterus remains soft and weak instead of contracting to compress the blood vessels that had been attached to the placenta. One solution involves infusing a medication to help the ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Higher blood pressure in childhood linked to earlier death from heart disease in adulthood

AI helped older adults report accurate blood pressure readings at home

High blood pressure in childhood and premature cardiovascular disease mortality

Zidesamtinib shows durable responses in ROS1 TKI pre-treated NSCLC, including patients with CNS disease and ROS1 G2032R mutations

Crizotinib fails to improve disease-free survival in resected early-stage ALK+ NSCLC

Ivonescimab plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in patients with EGFR+ NSCLC following 3rd-generation EGFR-TKI therapy

FLAURA2 trial shows osimertinib plus chemotherapy improves overall survival in eGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC

Aumolertinib plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in NSCLC with EGFR and concomitant tumor suppressor genes: ACROSS 2 phase III study

New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients

Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds

COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC

CheckMate 77T: Nivolumab maintains quality of life and reduces symptom deterioration in resectable NSCLC

Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital

New medication lowered hard-to-control high blood pressure in people with chronic kidney disease

Innovative oncolytic virus and immunotherapy combinations pave the way for advanced cancer treatment

New insights into energy metabolism and immune dynamics could transform head and neck cancer treatment

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield named LSU Boyd Professor – LSU’s highest faculty honor

Study prompts new theory of human-machine communication

New method calculates rate of gene expression to understand cell fate

Researchers quantify rate of essential evolutionary process in the ocean

Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract

Using new blood biomarkers, USC researchers find Alzheimer’s disease trial eligibility differs among various populations

Pioneering advances in in vivo CAR T cell production

Natural medicines target tumor vascular microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth

Coral-inspired pill offers a new window into the hidden world of the gut

nTIDE September2025 Jobs Report: Employment for people with disabilities surpasses prior high

When getting a job makes you go hungry

Good vibrations could revolutionize assisted reproductive technology

More scrutiny of domestic fishing fleets at ports could help deter illegal fishing

Scientists transform plastic waste into efficient CO2 capture materials

[Press-News.org] New 3D-printed tumor model enables faster, less expensive and less painful cancer treatment
Researchers combining bioprinting with synthetic chips to understand tumors in 3D