Ex-Vivo Chemotherapeutic Drug Treatment of Human Tumor Spheroids

Abstract

Drug testing of microspheroid tumors ex-vivo has proven to mimic micrometastases in the bloodstream of cancer patients1. More recently, cancer treatment has turned to developing individual drug regimens that target specific tumor types with specific drug types and dosages for each patient2. This project models human cancer micrometastases as microspheroids immersed in fluid drug representative of adjuvant therapy. Computer generated results showed half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) times of approximately 5 days with initial drug concentration of 0.1 mol/m3 in the extracellular fluid. Data from an experiment performed with a HT-29 microspheroid tumor exposed to varying concentrations of 5’-flourouracil for varying amounts of time were used for comparison. The death concentrations and time were used to validate our computer simulation. Model results show tumor destruction by drug therapy consistent with current experimental results after one week’s worth of treatment. This preliminary model offers a safe and cost-effective alternative to medical testing for better understanding of dosing options for tumor destruction. Our work can now be applied for various tumors of different sizes and cell types to optimize tumor degradation for specific patient treatment options.