A new technology developed at the Weizmann Institute may make it possible to assess in advance how the tumors are expected to respond to the various treatments, thus increasing the patients' chances of survival
Many times after a malignant tumor is discovered in a patient's body, the response time is critical, and the decision on which treatment to choose may be fatal. Although there are guidelines for choosing a treatment, reality shows that the predictability of its success is not high, since each tumor reacts differently. As a result, long weeks are sometimes wasted on treatments that bear no fruit, and this is a period of time that may separate life and death.
A new technology developed in the laboratory of Dr Ravid Straussman At the Weizmann Institute, it may be possible to assess in advance how the tumors are expected to respond to the various treatments, thus increasing the chances of survival of the patients. There are already methods today that allow a sample of a cancerous tumor to be implanted in the body of mice in order to test the effectiveness of the various types of treatments. However, these methods are expensive, the test time is very long, and the tests fail to fully mimic the behavior of the tumor in the patient's body. Dr. Straussman from the Department of Molecular Biology of the Cell, and Dr. Nancy Gebert from his laboratory, developed a method that makes it possible to grow in the laboratory pieces of a cancerous tumor that were removed from the patient's body in the operating room, while preserving as much as possible the original structure of the tumor tissue, including its three-dimensional structure and system cells The vaccine is back.
The method, known as "Extracorporeal Organ Cultures" (Organ Vivo Ex EVOC - Culture) may make it possible to accurately predict which drug treatment will yield the best result. In addition, this method can be used by pharmaceutical companies to speed up the development process of new drugs. One of the advantages of the method lies in the preservation of the healthy body cells within the examined tissue. While many scientists researching cancer treatments focus on the cancerous cells, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that the healthy body cells found within the cancerous tumors can directly influence the response to treatment. Therefore, in order to predict how a tumor will respond to treatment, its original structure must be preserved in the patient's body, including the non-cancerous cells within it.
"Knowledge" company, the applications arm of the institute, recently signed a license agreement with the company "CuResponse" in order to develop a personal test for choosing chemotherapy treatment based on this technology. The effectiveness of the method was demonstrated in animals, and was also tested in samples taken from humans in leading medical centers in Israel, including the Hadassah, Sheba, and Ichilov hospitals. "Curiresponse" recently raised funds from the venture capital fund Amon Partners (see box), and is expected to inaugurate a laboratory for clinical trials.
