A  new  technology  that  simulates  tumors  has  been shown to perform as well as research 

animals  in  testing  chemotherapy  drugs,  representing  a potential tool for screening drugs 

before treating a patient.

A  long - term  goal  is  to  incorporate  biopsied  cancer  cells  from  patients  and  test   the 

effectiveness  of  different  drugs  on  the  patient-derived cells, said Bumsoo Han, a Purdue 

University professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering.

"There are many different types of chemotherapy drugs, so clinicians may be able to narrow 

down  which  ones  are  likely  to  be  more  effective  than others," he said. "Successful drug 

delivery and overcoming drug resistance are the primary clinical challenges for management 

and  treatment of cancer. To address this problem, we developed the tumor-microenvironme 

nt-on-chip (T-MOC)."

The device is about 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) square and contains "microfluidic" channels 

where cancer cells are cultured within a three-dimensional "extracellular matrix," a scaffold-lik

e material found between cells in living tissue. The experiments also incorporate "interstitial ?

uid," which is found inside tumors and is thought to be a barrier to drug delivery.

Such  a  tool  could  be  used  for  "precision medicine," in which drug treatment is tailored to 

individual patients and certain cancer types. Drug resistance and various subtypes of tumors 

represent  critical  bottlenecks  for effective chemotherapy. Cancer cells produce multi-drug-

resistant  proteins  that  pump  the  anti-cancer  drugs  out  of the cells, helping them survive 

chemotherapy treatment.