MEDICINE IN THE FUTURE
THE FUTURE OF CANCER TREATMENT By
Caroline Kellogg Eve Tanios
An effective treatment for cancer has eluded scientists and doctors for centuries. For as long as we have studied cancer, it remains the second-leading cause of death globally and a disease that half of men and a third of women will develop in their lifetimes. But why is it so difficult to find an effective treatment? Because there isn’t one. As each tumor has its own set of mutations and variations, they respond differently to chemotherapy, radiation, and other known cancer treatments. While a single universal cancer treatment remains elusive, scientists are developing methods to personalize the treatment of cancer instead of searching for a cure-all. The central philosophy behind the personalization of cancer treatment is predicting the effectiveness of treatments through models. However, modeling human cancer
is extremely difficult. The wide variety of potential mutations combined with the randomness of cancer development makes it impossible to predict exactly how a tumor will develop. So, why not observe it in real time? The most accurate model involves taking a sample of a human tumor and implanting it into immunocompromised mice. Following implantation, several therapeutic strategies are tested on the mice to determine which one most effectively limits tumor growth and should be administered to the patient. While it seems impossible to grow human tissue within a mouse, these tumors have been shown to have similar molecular profiles to those grown in humans. There are many benefits of growing a tumor in real-time, including the ability to study the tumor at
various stages of development or understand the changes that lead to metastasis. However, there are several drawbacks that cause these models to be inefficient. Unsurprisingly, one of the most significant limitations is the fact that oftentimes implanted tumor cells do not grow in specific mice. Testing immunotherapies is also impossible when working with immunocompromised mice, and the human tumor microenvironment can’t be perfectly replicated in mice. The financial burden of creating and maintaining multiple mouse generations also cannot be understated; it can cost up to $25,000 to propagate tumors in mice, all of which is not covered by insurance. In response to these difficulties, scientists have developed an alternative for modeling human cancers: organoid models. Grown in specialized media
autumn 2021 || 27
