Design of 3-D Scaffold to Test Cancer Drugs

Researchers developing new cancer drugs need a realistic model to test their drugs before giving them to humans. Laboratory cell cultures grown on a flat surface are not always adequate to this task. So Vinod Labhasetwar, PhD, Lerner Research Institute, and his team have designed a structure that allows researchers to grow breast cancer cells in a roughly tumor-like structure. Formed of porous biodegradable polymeric microparticles, the 3-D scaffold more closely mimics the effects drugs have in human patients. This has been verified by a study that also shows differences in the way cancer cells signal to each other in a 3-D versus 2-D environment.