The end goal is to use these avatars to develop personalized cancer therapies

May 22, 2014 07:56 GMT  ·  By

A new paper published in yesterday's issue of the Journal of Translational Medicine documents the use of so-called cancer cell avatars to test potential drugs and treatment options more efficiently and without putting the patient at risk.

In this paper, researchers with the University of California, the San Diego School of Medicine, and the Moores Cancer Center explain that cancer cells are rather unique, meaning that each patient sports a particular type.

Hence, it makes little sense to give the same drug to several different individuals, keep one's fingers crossed, and hope that things will eventually work out. Instead, cancer therapies should be personalized.

The scientists who worked on this research project explain that, by creating computer simulations of different cancer cells, it is possible to pin down the drug most likely to work and determine the best course of treatment.

Otherwise put, these avatars make it possible to experiment with various cancer treatment options without stressing the patient, maybe even making their condition take a turn for the worse, EurekAlert informs.

“Genomics tells us that cancers are a lot like snowflakes. No two cancers are alike so it does not make sense to give all patients the same drugs. This is the idea behind personalizing therapies for cancer,” explains study lead author Sandeep Pingle.

Furthermore, “With the virtual cell model, we can take into account all the complexity of cellular processes to predict which drugs will be the most effective against a particular tumor based on its genomic profile. This is a first step toward personalized medicine.”

The cancer cell avatars created by the University of California, the San Diego School of Medicine, and the Moores Cancer Center scientists are basically virtual models of actual cells occurring inside a patient's body.

A computer model that has been fed information concerning the behavior of these cells is the one in charge of figuring out which drugs would work best as a treatment option, the researchers explain.

“The advantage of computational modeling is the ability to incorporate the wealth of genomic and proteomic information on cancer cells and to screen drugs and combinations of drugs much faster and cost effectively,” scientist Santosh Kesari stresses.

Experiments carried out by Sandeep Pingle, Santosh Kesari and their colleagues have shown that, as peculiar as the idea of creating cancer cells avatars might sound, the computer model used to analyze these virtual cells is actually quite efficient when it comes to identifying the right drugs.

Although this technology is not yet ready for use in real-life conditions, specialists hope that it will not be long until their cancer cells avatars hit clinics and hospitals and allow doctors to settle on the best course of treatment for their patients.