癌症小鼠 z-bo 2020-11-30 294

　　In a laboratory in Baltimore, USA, there is a scene where a hairless mouse is placed in rows of plastic boxes, and a yellow card is attached to each box. In fact, each mouse corresponds to a patient who is fighting cancer. These mice are the embodiment of cancer, and the mass tumors that can be seen under their skin come from real cancer patients.

　　Each mouse is individually managed, and they will eventually receive different medications, and then their tumors will be tested. Which drug test result is good will be fed back to the doctor who is treating the corresponding cancer patient.

　　Cancer turned into hairless mice

　　The technology developed by Champions Oncology has created a turning point in personalized medicine. In New Jersey and Maryland, the company has begun to provide patients with cancer mouse "avatars" at a cost of between 10,000 and 12,000 US dollars. Insurance companies do not cover the technology because it is currently experimental.

　　In this service provided by Champions, doctors first remove a small piece of the patient’s tumor during surgery or biopsy, and then transplant the tumor under the skin of immunodeficient mice. Because rodents have impaired defense mechanisms, human tumors can grow.

　　The data obtained from these mice may be life-saving, because whether the drugs used in cancer patients are effective is usually just a guess, and verification has found that many selected drugs are wrong. Justin Stebbing, an oncologist at Imperial College London who participated in the medical research of Champions, said: “Under normal circumstances, the drugs we give to patients may not work more. Data obtained from cancer mouse incarnations It will bring greater confidence to patients."

　　This technology has also made further efforts to take human tumors out of the body for experiments. Some researchers have created fruit flies with the same genetic mutations as human patients. There is also a technology still in development that attempts to capture tumor cells from the blood of patients and then detect them in a petri dish. In addition, scientists are also using chips to develop mini-organs that match the immune system with patients.

　　Challenge

　　Don Ingber, director of the Harvard University West Institute of Bioengineering, said that these in vitro research approaches face similar challenges. On the one hand, cancer cells vary greatly, and the cancer cells in mice are not necessarily the same as those in patients. On the other hand, the immune system is closely involved in the human body's response to cancer, but mice lack the same immune system. After all, it is still a mouse after all.

　　Champions was established in 2007 and has successfully created cancer mouse avatars of more than 350 patients. In June of this year, the company said that it would cooperate with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York to create another cancer mouse avatar for 100 breast cancer patients. Stebbing is currently trying to apply this technology to rare cancer patients. He said: "Overall, the technology has obtained very convincing data, which can predict whether expensive/toxic drugs can Play a role."

　　Of course, not all transplants are successful. For 30% of the patients, Champions has not been able to create their cancer mouse incarnation. The biggest limitation of this technology is that it allows tumors in mice to grow at the same rate as humans. This means that the technology will not benefit patients who need to be treated as quickly as possible. Ronnie Morris, the company's president, said that the entire process, including tumor growth, drug treatment, and feedback to doctors, takes 4-6 months.

　　Stebbing published a study in the journal Cancer. Champions created mouse avatars for 22 patients with advanced sarcoma, but nine of them died before the results of the study were published. Morris said: “In the months after the patient’s surgery or biopsy, they have to undergo chemotherapy and eventually die. Although we have constructed a cancer avatar, the patient does not need them.”