{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Dr. Andrew Freywald: Tumours Meet Their Match","description":"How can oncologists predict which cancer treatment is most likely to work for a given patient? Dr. Andrew Freywald explores that question by growing tiny, living models of real-life patient tumours \u2014 organoids\u2014 then watching how each one responds to existing cancer drugs.   Freywald, a longtime cancer researcher and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine, said establishing an organoid development protocol took a \u201clot of trial and error.\u201d   \u201cThis is a complex process. It requires a lot of factors and also requires a lot of technical expertise,\u201d said Freywald, crediting his laboratory team. He said it took several years to create the right conditions to grow miniature pancreatic and ovarian tumours.   Freywald and his team deliberately chose two of the most difficult cancers to treat. Only 13 per cent of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive five years.   In women, ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer.   \u201cBoth cancers need serious improvements in treatment protocols,\u201d said Freywald.   He said when first-line cancer therapies don\u2019t work, modeling tumours in organoids will allow researchers to narrow down the most efficient drugs.   \u201cIt was amazing for me how really closely these models represent the regional tumors in terms of their genomic organization and in terms of their morphology,\u201d Freywald said.   He said the challenge lies in the tumours themselves. Each one is slightly different from the next.    \u201cThis uniqueness makes it very hard for oncologists to predict which tumor, which treatments would or would not work.\u201d   Over the coming months, Freywald and his team will test organoids derived from 100 individual tumour samples, assessing them against thousands of approved drugs. Their research is still in the proof-of-principle stage; it isn\u2019t yet a routine way to choose a patient\u2019s treatment.   But if Freywald and his team succeed, this could help pave the way for clinical trials and more personalised cancer care.   \u201cOur analysis would probably provide these options to them and that would obviously improve their chances for survival,\u201d Freywald said.   His research is supported by donations to Saskatoon\u2019s Bruce Gordon Memorial Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, along with Genome Prairie, CIHI, the University of Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and health start-up OncoForma.   \u201cOur hope is that when we pass these through initial stages, including clinical trials, we will be able to convince Health Canada to accept it as a standard of care, at least for some cancers,\u201d said Freywald.  \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting." ","author_name":"Researchers Under the Scope","author_url":"https:\/\/medicine.usask.ca\/research\/index.php#ConnectWithUs","html":"