Engineered Tumor Model

Boles, Jacob Matthew; Smith, Kylie R.; Brewster, Jessica L.; Waligora, Paige A.

Student Work

Engineered Tumor Model Public

About 12% of women in the United States will be diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in their lifetime. Metastasis occurs when a circulating tumor cell (CTC) or CTC cluster breaks off a primary tumor and attaches elsewhere in the body. One form of breast cancer is triple negative metastatic breast cancer and, while treatable, it is not curable. This project aimed to create a 3D tumor microenvironment that can be used to assess the effectiveness of various treatments on biopsies from individual patients. To do this, three objectives were identified: create CTC clusters, form a microtissue, and integrate the two within a 3D environment.The 3D model was never tested, but the group is hopeful that future work can be done to further examine the possibility of a 3D tumor microenvironment.

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