BEACON - BrEAst Cancer OrgaNoids Tayside
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimisation of the generation of breast cancer organoids
IRAS ID
335350
Contact name
Laureano de la Vega
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Dundee
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Breast cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death among women, it is a complex tumour and a range of effective treatments is required. The usual way to research these tumours, and their response to treatments, is to implant cells from the tumour into mice. Maintenance is time-consuming, expensive, and not suitable for carrying out many tests at the same time. These problems have been solved by creating tumour organoids.
Organoids are small, simple versions of the cancer. Organoids should act more like real cancer cells and may be better for testing new drugs. Growing organoids does not use mice. Organoids copy the complex nature of the original tumour and the response to cancer treatments making them a promising way to identify new personalised treatments. It allows testing of drug efficiency in pre-clinical and clinical studies. There is no expertise to generate patient-derived breast cancer organoids in Tayside. There are no stores of breast cancer organoids in Scotland.
This study aims to collect biopsies from breast cancer patients to develop the processes involved in the growth of breast cancer organoids. Biopsies will be collected from 40 women, taken from tumours after they are removed during clinical care and all the samples required for clinical care have been obtained. The samples will then be used by scientists in the Division of Cellular Medicine, University of Dundee. If cancer organoids are grown successfully, they will be compared with the characteristics of the original tumour. The response to clinically used cancer drugs will also be compared with the response of the original tumour.
If the research team are not successful in growing cancer organoids from the biopsies, the biopsies may be used for transplantation in mice. The use of the biopsies in mice will require specific consent from participants for this.REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0085
Date of REC Opinion
6 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion