SBIR Phase I: Personalized Cancer Screening

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提高癌症治疗的成功率，降低治疗成本和持续时间，并改善患者的生活质量。在1600万被诊断患有癌症的美国人中，超过70%的人将通过试错法进行无效的化疗周期。平均而言，一个化疗周期的费用为3万美元，需要12周才能完成;癌症患者需要接受5-6个周期，估计费用为18万美元。本项目提出了一种预筛选化疗药物反应的方法，使临床医生可以选择最有效的治疗方法，从而缩短疗程，减少并发症，改善预后，减轻经济负担。该技术使用快速，单步，可扩展，廉价和自动化的过程，可以在不到一周的时间内测试各种药物。有了这项技术，肿瘤学家将能够在开始治疗之前，在个性化的基础上为癌症患者选择最有效的化疗药物。所提出的个性化方法将化疗周期的数量减少到1-2个，每次治疗节省高达1 - 2万美元，每年为国家节省18.2 B美元。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目支持开发，概念验证，以及对一个自动化生物芯片平台进行临床前评估，该平台在体外培养患者的癌细胞，以筛选它们对抗化疗药物。在本文所述的研究中，来自患者活检的肿瘤标本将在生物芯片中生长并维持为微肿瘤，以概括临床肿瘤行为。生物芯片和过程将被优化，以创建可用于评估癌症治疗性能的微肿瘤。研究目标是：I）通过模拟研究评估、改进和优化生物芯片的设计，以确保与天然肿瘤微结构和传质行为的兼容性; II）评估生物芯片中患者源性微肿瘤的形成、生长和行为;和III）研究患者来源的微肿瘤对抗-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to increase the success rates of cancer therapy, reduce the costs and duration of treatment, and to improve patients’ life quality. More than 70% of the 16 million Americans diagnosed with cancer will undergo ineffective chemotherapy cycles through trial-and-error methods. On average, a cycle of chemotherapy costs $30 k and takes 12 weeks to complete; cancer patients undergo 5-6 cycles at a cost of an estimated $180 k. This project advances a method to pre-screen response to chemotherapy drugs so that clinicians can select the most effective treatment, consequently shortening the duration, reducing complications, improving outcomes, and reducing the financial burden. The technology uses a quick, single-step, scalable, inexpensive, and automated process that tests a wide range of drugs in less than a week. With this technology, the oncologist will be able to select the most effective chemotherapy drug for a cancer patient, on an individualized basis and prior to initiating treatment. The proposed personalized approach would reduce the number of chemotherapy cycles to 1-2, and save up to $120 k per treatment, generating annual national savings of $18.2 B.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project supports the development, proof-of-concept validation, and preclinical evaluation of an automated biochip platform that grows patients’ cancer cells outside the body to screen them against chemotherapeutic drugs. In the research described herein, tumor specimens from patient biopsies will be grown and maintained as microtumors in the biochips to recapitulate clinical tumor behavior. The biochips and process will be optimized to create microtumors that can be used toward evaluating the performance of cancer treatment. Research objectives are to I) evaluate, refine, and optimize the design of the biochips through simulation studies to ensure compatibility with native tumor microstructure and mass transfer behavior; II) evaluate the formation, growth, and behavior of patient-derived microtumors in the biochips; and III) investigate the response of patient-derived microtumors to anti-cancer drugs in comparison to longitudinal clinical data.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.