Investigators for Regenerative Medicine have developed new testing methods using lab-grown mesothelioma tumours. These tumours may allow doctors to personalise mesothelioma patients’ treatment in the future.
The small mesothelioma tumors are called organoids. The tissue which forms the organoids is collected when a mesothelioma patient has a biopsy. For mesothelioma patients, the only way to accurately diagnose the disease is through biopsy. Treatments can then be tested and developed using model organoids grown from the tissue collected during the biopsy. This means that treatments do not have to be tested on the patient themselves in the first instance.
Tailored treatment
The mesothelioma tumour organoids could allow doctors to tailor and optimise treatments to suit individual patients.
Development in this area feeds into the current trend of personalising treatments. With cancer patients, doctors hope to be able to better analyse various mutations and create bespoke treatments. Specific treatments urgently need to be tailored to cancer patients. This is because chemotherapy may be effective for one patient and ineffective for another. The ability to understand a mesothelioma cancer sufferer’s genetics, and the genetics of their specific asbestos cancer, is essential in progressing the treatment options available.
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