Advances and Challenges in 3D Bioprinted Cancer Models: Opportunities for Personalized Medicine and Tissue Engineering

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, after cardiovascular disease, claiming not only a staggering number of lives but also causing considerable health and economic devastation, particularly in less-developed countries. Therapeutic interventions are impeded by differences in patient-to-patient responses to anti-cancer drugs. A personalized medicine approach is crucial for treating specific patient groups and includes using molecular and genetic screens to find appropriate stratifications of patients who will respond (and those who will not) to treatment regimens. However, information on which risk stratification method can be used to hone in on cancer types and patients who will be likely responders to a specific anti-cancer agent remains elusive for most cancers. Novel developments in 3D bioprinting technology have been widely applied to recreate relevant bioengineered tumor organotypic structures capable of mimicking the human tissue and microenvironment or adequate drug responses in high-throughput screening settings. Parts are autogenously printed in the form of 3D bioengineered tissues using a computer-aided design concept where multiple layers include different cell types and compatible biomaterials to build specific configurations. Patient-derived cancer and stromal cells, together with genetic material, extracellular matrix proteins, and growth factors,

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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