Having endowed a research grant at MD Anderson in Alan's memory gives us many opportunities, one of which is the chance to meet researchers and have the occasional tour of their labs and work. When MJ, our Development Director, visited with Judy earlier this summer, she told her about some exciting new work being done with sarcomas - micro-devices that could change the way drugs are developed and prescribed.
Today we got to meet Dr. Branko Cuglievan, a research fellow who showed us around the South Campus Research Building and gave us a presentation on this potentially game-changing technique. (Branko is also from Peru like Nino Rainusso, the St. Baldrick's Scholar we met yesterday. In an amazing case of Small-World-itis, they are good friends!) The micro-devices can be implanted into a tumor while still in a patient's body to deliver up 18 different minuscule doses of drugs or drug combinations directly to the tumor cells. After 24 hours, the tumor with the micro-device is removed and sliced to see what kind of effect the different dosing had on cell death. In preliminary studies, the efficacy of the direct dose tracked very closely with how well the drugs would worked if infused systemically. While Sloan Kettering is using these micro-devices (which were developed at MIT) on breast cancer, MD Anderson is the only program using them on sarcomas, and specifically on pediatric tumors.
The micro-device was barely the size of a mechanical pencil lead, and we could only see the reservoirs by twisting it and seeing the change in the way light reflected off the surface. It used to take Branko three hours to load all the reservoirs but with the new holder developed for them at MIT he can do it in 45 minutes now. It only takes a few minutes to implant the micro-device in a tumor with a biopsy needle.
While this could be the way to personalize and target treatments in individual patients one day (testing 18 different possible drugs and drug combinations at one time to find out what would work best with that particular patient's tumor), Branko believes the real benefit to micro-devices will be to streamline and accelerate the development of new drugs and protocols. Instead of testing in the artificial environment of a monolayer of cells in a petri dish, possible treatments can be tested inside a solid, live tumor. Their lab works with the surgeons in the clinic to get as many samples as possible, even getting samples from other institutions when possible. Branko is writing the clinical trial to be as broad as possible, so that protocol can be applied to any solid tumor. It was very exciting to hear about the possibilities, and we are very proud that the endowment in Alan's memory gives an annual grant to MD Anderson to pursue research in the fight against pediatric sarcoma!
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| Dr. Branko Cuglievan holds a micro-Cuglievandevice |
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| The tiny micro-device - the tail allows it to be held while being filled and sliced |
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| It's barely the size of a pencil lead |
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| Loading it onto the holder |
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| Ready to load |
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| A tumor with a micro-device in it |
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