Project description
Nanomechanical biomarkers for better personalised cancer treatment
Tumours are highly heterogeneous structures with variations between tumour types but also among tumours of the same type and depending on progression. Many solid tumours stiffen as they grow inside a host’s tissue. Stiffening occurs due to the increase in the tumour's structural components, and the mechanical forces generated within the tumour compress the intratumoral blood vessels, leading to poor drug delivery. Recent studies demonstrated that stress-alleviation strategy, using anti-fibrotic agents, promotes tumour softening and improves drug delivery, enhancing therapy. The EU-funded CancerFingerPrints project will use state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy to develop nanomechanical biomarkers for the quantification of the mechanical tumour characteristics.
Objective
In the fight against cancer, it is well recognized that tumors are highly heterogeneous and they might differ considerably not only between tumors types but also among tumors of the same type or even for the same tumor during progression. As a result, the efficacy of standard cancer chemotherapies varies, and while some patients respond to a particular treatment, other patients do not gain any benefit and in many cases, the condition of the patient deteriorates due to adverse effects. Consequently, crucial in cancer therapy is the prediction of a patient’s response to treatment. Failure of standard therapies has led to the introduction of a new era of personalized, patient-specific treatments, which are based on the identification of biomarkers that characterize the state of a particular tumor. Many solid tumors (e.g. breast cancers and sarcomas) stiffen as they grow in a host’s normal tissue. Stiffening is caused by an increase in the structural components of the tumor. As tumor tissue becomes stiffer, mechanical forces are generated within the tumor, that cause the compression of intratumoral blood vessels, resulting in compromised vessel functionality, which leads to poor drug delivery and therapeutic outcomes. Recently, it has been demonstrated that “stress-alleviation” strategy, which uses anti-fibrotic agents to promote tumor softening, improves uniform delivery of drugs and enhances therapy. Here, we propose the use of state-of-the-art Atomic Force Microscopy-AFM techniques for the development of a NanoMechanical biomarker, which will quantify the mechanical FingerPrints of Cancer. This biomarker will aim to: (i)predict the patient’s response to treatment with chemotherapy and (ii)monitor treatment outcomes, in the case of strategies that target tumor mechanical properties (e.g. stress-alleviation therapy). Furthermore, we propose to develop an AFM-based software product to be used as a commercial tool for the measurement of the NanoMechanical biomarker.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantHost institution
1678 Nicosia
Cyprus