Personalized Functional Profiling (PFP)

Despite extraordinary advances in our understanding of the biology that underlies tumor development and progression and the rapidly evolving field of personalized medicine, cancer is still one of the deadliest diseases. Thanks to the identification of specific actionable mutations, many cancer patients have benefited from the survival improvements observed with targeted therapies. Nevertheless, only a small subset of cancer patients receiving targeted drugs experience an objective response. Because cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease, the search for effective cancer treatments will in all likelihood need to address not only patient-specific molecular defects but also aspects of the tumor microenvironment. Precision medicine requires treatment to be personalized to the individual patient. Our team has developed a patient-derived 3D culture-based drug profiling platform, which can recapitulate the structure of patient’s tumor and thus better predicts response to treatment in vivo. The platform gives a more direct link to therapeutic choices for each individual patient. Using this platform, we could identify personalized treatments for cancer patients. As a short-term objective, we would like to develop this technology to accommodate various cancer types (mainly, GBM and GI cancers). To do so, we are collaborating with different groups within the LIH (IBBL, CIEC, DOCR…), with the “Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg” (CHL), “Hôpitaux Robert Schuman” (HRS), and MBD Korea. For the long-term, the Precision oncology platform can provide real-time personalized treatment solutions for each individual patient and foster drug repositioning in Luxembourg. It will also contribute to advancing basic research for understanding tumor biology and mechanisms of action.