title: Ex vivo treatment response of primary tumors and/or associated metastases for preclinical and clinical development of therapeutics.
abstract: The molecular analysis of established cancer cell lines has been the mainstay of cancer research for the past several decades. Cell culture provides both direct and rapid analysis of therapeutic sensitivity and resistance. However, recent evidence suggests that therapeutic response is not exclusive to the inherent molecular composition of cancer cells but rather is greatly influenced by the tumor cell microenvironment, a feature that cannot be recapitulated by traditional culturing methods. Even implementation of tumor xenografts, though providing a wealth of information on drug delivery/efficacy, cannot capture the tumor cell/microenvironment crosstalk (i.e., soluble factors) that occurs within human tumors and greatly impacts tumor response. To this extent, we have developed an ex vivo (fresh tissue sectioning) technique which allows for the direct assessment of treatment response for preclinical and clinical therapeutics development. This technique maintains tissue integrity and cellular architecture within the tumor cell/microenvironment context throughout treatment response providing a more precise means to assess drug efficacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Adriana D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Corben
authors.affiliation: Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Mohammad M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Uddin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College.
authors.forename: Brooke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farooq
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Shanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Modi
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gerecitano
authors.affiliation: Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chiosis
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; alpaughm@mskcc.org.
authors.forename: Mary L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Alpaugh
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008867:Microtomy / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents