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1600万被诊断为癌症的美国人中，超过70%的人将通过反复试验的方法接受无效的化疗周期。平均而言，一个周期的化疗费用为3万美元，需要12周才能完成；癌症患者需要经历5-6个周期，估计成本为180k美元。该项目提出了一种预先筛选化疗药物反应的方法，以便临床医生选择最有效的治疗方法，从而缩短持续时间，减少并发症，改善结果，并减轻经济负担。这项技术使用了一个快速、一步、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，肿瘤学家将能够在个体化的基础上，在开始治疗之前为癌症患者选择最有效的化疗药物。拟议的个性化方法将把化疗周期减少到1-2个周期，每次治疗最多节省12万美元，每年节省18.2美元。这个小企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目支持自动化生物芯片平台的开发、概念验证和临床前评估，该平台在体外培养患者的癌细胞，以筛选化疗药物。在这里描述的研究中，来自患者活检组织的肿瘤样本将在生物芯片中作为微肿瘤生长和维持，以概括临床肿瘤行为。生物芯片和工艺将被优化，以创造出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，以确保与本地肿瘤微结构和传质行为的兼容性；ii)评估生物芯片中患者来源的微肿瘤的形成、生长和行为；以及iii)与纵向临床数据比较，调查患者来源的微肿瘤对抗癌药物的反应。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.