Center for Individualized Medicine

Cancer and Aggressive Tumors: Ex Vivo Study

A collaborative team of Mayo Clinic scientists is studying creative new strategy for treating advanced tumors, using genomics and human tumor samples as their guides. This unique approach, called Ex Vivo, creates a miniature tumor replica for testing therapies outside a patient's body, guided by a complete genomic analysis of the patient's tumor cells. The Ex Vivo strategy centers on finding treatment options by knowing the full story of each tumor and recognizing every patient's tumor as a unique disease of altered cells.

Ex Vivo is applicable to aggressive tumors broadly. These could be malignant cancer tumors but also could be rare nonmalignant tumors that grow aggressively.

The Ex Vivo process starts with taking a small biopsy of a patient's tumor and dissecting the genetic details at high resolution. This allows researchers to find the tumor's unique evolutionary state and its aggressive potential.

After uncovering the tumor's genomic road map, the second part of the study involves testing drugs on the tumor cells. This can include using existing approved drugs that have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as well as investigational drugs.

In this step, the team uses a second piece of the patient's tumor to create 3D miniature tumor replicas. Then, small numbers of cells are divided into liquid droplets, where the cells regroup, adhere to each other and form miniature versions of the tumor that was originally inside the patient's body. Each set of miniature tumor models can screen dozens of drug candidates, including combinations.

Testing a drug on the tumor before testing it in the patient can potentially resolve questions about optimal application of therapies. Ex Vivo seeks to eliminate the trial-and-error process of patients being exposed to drugs that are often toxic and provide no benefit. The long-term goal of the Ex Vivo team is to bring the procedure into routine clinical use.

Participation

The Ex Vivo study is open to Mayo Clinic patients with aggressive tumors who are identified as suitable for the study by their Mayo clinicians and the study chairs.