Summer Blog Series with the 3RCC, part 5: 3D-Printed Model Revolutionizes Cancer Research

Despite being one of the leading causes of death, cancer is still hard to treat effectively. One reason is that current research models, such as 2D cell cultures¹, tumor grafts on mice², or lab-grown organoids³, do not accurately mimic the tumor’s environment, which can affect how tumors respond to drugs.

3D cancer models, which are lab-grown structures that mimic the three-dimensional environment of tumors, more accurately show how tumor cells interact with their surroundings. This is important since many drugs for fighting cancer target these interactions. However, these 3D models still miss key features like supportive cells and blood vessels, which are essential for tumor growth and proper drug testing.

Lena Neufeld and her lab at Tel Aviv University in Israel used a bioprinter to create a 3D cancer model, a lab-grown structure that mimics this complex three-dimensional environment of tumors. They generated a 3D tumor model with a bioarchitecture very similar to natural ones.

This model was able to successfully imitate the complex cancer architecture and its growth and thus provides an elegant alternative to animal models. It can serve as a more accurate platform for testing new therapies than what can be achieved with 2D cultures. The strong demonstration that 2D cultures are insufficient to model in vivo cancer illustrates the need to further expand this research area and its implementation in other fields. Since drug screening in pre-clinical cancer research mainly relies on animals, this study provides strong arguments for a shift towards 3D bioprinted systems in the search for drugs to treat cancer.

Authors: Christopher Cederroth, Jessica Lampe & Robbie I’Anson Price, Swiss 3R Competence Centre

Reference: Neufeld L. et al., (2021) Microengineered perfusable 3D-bioprinted glioblastoma model for in vivo mimicry of tumor microenvironment. Science Advances. 7(34):eabi9119. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi9119

¹A2D cell culture is a laboratory technique used to grow and maintain cells in a flat, two-dimensional environment.

² A tumor graft, also known as a patient-derived xenograft (PDX), is a model for studying human cancer. In this technique, tumor tissues from a cancer patient are implanted into immunodeficient mice. These mice do not reject human tissues due to their compromised immune systems, allowing the tumor to grow and be studied in a living organism.

³ Lab-grown organoids are three-dimensional, miniaturized, and simplified replicas of organs.