Development of a novel personalised therapy platform for metastatic breast cancer

Metastatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, and accounts for the most cancer deaths. Frequently unresponsive to therapies, the variable locations of the tumours make treatment choices challenging. In breast cancer, patients with localised primary tumours have a 99% five-year survival chance, but this drops to only 29% for metastatic breast cancer. Understanding each patient’s tumour and developing a personalised treatment approach is the only way we will improve outcomes.

Organoids are “mini-3D tumours” that are created in the laboratory, and perfectly mimic the patients tumour they were developed from. Organoid technology is cutting-edge and can provide a unique approach to personalised cancer treatment, allowing us to understand every individual metastatic breast cancer in detail, and test and find the appropriate treatment for every patient.

The Cabrini-Monash Breast Cancer Organoid Program is only one of two in the world that have successfully grown organoids from breast cancer cells, but organoids have only been developed from primary breast tumours. This innovative study will be the first of its kind in the world exploring the development of metastatic breast cancer organoids. Once mastered, the process could be made available to all women with metastatic breast cancer, and the eventual aim would be to commercialise the process.