The Operating Theatre Journal - Journal - Page 12
Trends in Cancer. The world’s 昀椀rst collection of brain metastasis
living samples will help treat each patient with the most
effective therapy for them
A living biobank that enables organotypic cultures
“We have built a ‘living’ biobank” write Valiente and Ortega-Paíno. And
this characteristic can be “transformative, not only for research but
also for clinical trial design, especially when focused on unmet clinical
needs, such as brain metastasis”.
The fact that the cells are living allows them, for example, to study their
response to speci昀椀c drugs. RENACER paves the way to create avatars
for each patient in order to identify the best therapeutic options in an
individualised way.
“Research contracts have been already signed to exploit patient-derived
organotypic cultures (PDOCs) as avatars, thus providing the possibility
to generate biomarkers of sensitivity or resistance to speci昀椀c drugs”
the authors explain in Trends in Cancer.
The hospitals involved with RENACER work as a network to pass on
research 昀椀ndings to patients as quickly as possible. In fact, thanks to
this network, there are already two clinical trials underway, which
will determine the capacity of two biomarkers to discriminate cases in
which radiotherapy – a technique with side effects – will be effective.
Sample prepared, classi昀椀ed and conserved at the CNIO Biobank.
Laura M. Lombardía / CNIO.
A paper published in Trends in Cancer explains the advantages of
RENACER, the world’s 昀椀rst repository of brain metastases live samples,
created by researchers at CNIO
On live samples researchers can study the way cancer cells respond to
drugs. This paves the way to create individual avatars for each patient
on which to test out possible therapies before applying them.
RENACER is made up of around twenty hospitals, whose representatives
have attended their 昀椀rst general assembly meeting at the Fundación
Ramón Areces, the institution also funding the project “National Brain
Metastasis Network: Implementation, Development and Coordination”
At 18 Spanish hospitals, when a patient with brain metastasis undergoes
surgery, they can donate a tiny part of their brain to the 昀椀rst repository
of brain metastasis living samples in the world, based at CNIO (Spanish
National Cancer Research Centre). It is a pioneering collection in the
world, created to accelerate the search for therapies against brain
metastasis, a disease that affects up to 30% of patients with systemic
cancer.
The creators of this repository are two researchers from CNIO, Manuel
Valiente, head of the Brain Metastasis Group, and Eva Ortega-Paíno,
director of the Biobank, who set out in the journal Trends in Cancer
the advantages of the collection, called RENACER –Spanish acronym for
the National Brain Metastasis Network–, which in just three years has
compiled samples from more than 150 patients.
The truly unique feature of RENACER, which makes it a valuable tool for
the international scienti昀椀c community, is that it contains living samples,
conserved in cultures that enable the cells to continue behaving in a
similar way as they were in the body.
12
From the operating theatre to the biobank in hours
The requirement for cells to be “alive” is not easy to achieve, since it
involves a sophisticated logistics chain. The samples are taken from the
operating theatre in a special container, in their culture medium, at a
temperature of between 4 and 8 degrees centigrade.
They must reach the CNIO Biobank, in Madrid, in less than 24 hours.
There, they are processed, organotypic cultures are created, and they
are divided into proportional parts that are stored as samples for
future investigations. They are also analysed using various techniques
and sequenced, to extract as much information as possible from them.
All the data are put into a database that is open to the international
scienti昀椀c community.
“It is pivotal to empower patients”
“This is happening just a few years after the project was launched”,
said Valiente. “It’s a strategy that helps to improve knowledge as well as
diagnosis and treatment options, but also brings all the people involved
closer together: patients, core researchers, chemical researchers,
healthcare professionals, and the biobank.”
Patients, “[because they act] as donors during a dif昀椀cult brain
metastasis neurosurgery, play a crucial role and we strongly believe
that it is pivotal to empower them,” the researchers explain. GEPAC
(Spanish Group of Patients with Cancer) is also involved with RENACER.
The III General Assembly of RENACER took place on 30 October at
the Fundación Ramón Areces, in Madrid, an institution that is also
funding the project entitled “National Brain Metastasis Network:
Implementation, Development and Coordination.”
Reference article
Manuel Valiente, Eva Ortega-Paino, Updating cancer research with
patient-focused networks, Trends in Cancer, 2023,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2023.09.002
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