Researchers from the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Rambam Medical Center – Prof. Karl Skorecki and Dr. Maty Tzukerman – have developed an experimental model in which cancer cells, isolated from a patient with ovarian cancer, created a cancerous tumor in human tissue in a mouse that mimics the development of ovarian cancer in the human body. The source of the human tissue is the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in mice. The human tissue also supports the growth of human cancer cells that are not capable of growing directly in mice.

“This novel approach, which is being developed into cancer treatment, stands promotes individual adaptation of treatment to the type of cancer the patient is suffering from,” explains Dr. Tzukerman. “One of the main obstacles in developing this type of approach is the lack of a preclinical experimental model in which it is possible to grow the patient’s cancer cells in a manner that mimics a cancerous tumor in the human body in order to check the sensitivity of the tumor to specific treatment.”

The research was carried out in the framework of research for a master’s thesis by Ehood Katz, under the direction of Dr. Tzukerman and Prof. Skorecki. The research isolated and characterized various subpopulations of ovarian cancer cells from one patient. These cells reflect the variety of characteristics of ovarian cancer in different patients. In addition, the innovative experimental model, which mimics cancerous tumors in human tissue, exposed the presence of cancerous master cells in the ovarian cancer that are apparently the most important target for extermination in anticancer treatment.

The present research especially emphasizes the importance of the cell environment in which the cancerous tumor is grown in the experimental model, and which serves as a basis for the development of anticancer treatments and, in continuation, for the development of individual anticancer therapies.

The research appears in the online edition of “Clinical Cancer Research” – January issue.