Once a potential cancer-fighting drug shows promise in laboratory tests using tumor cells, the next step is to test that drug in animals before bringing it to human clinical trials. To enable that critical second step, the Chordoma Foundation is partnering with South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) to launch the Chordoma Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX) Repository: the world’s first collection of mice with human chordoma tumors.
This repository complements the Foundation’s Cell Line Repository managed by the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), and will further accelerate research by the Foundation and by collaborating researchers.
Human tumors, growing in mice
Patient-derived xenograft models are created by implanting small pieces of human chordoma tumors directly into mice. These tumors can grow within the mouse while retaining the biology of the original human tumor. Once the tumor grows, it can then be passed into additional mice or frozen to re-engraft at a later time.
“PDX models closely mimic the conditions of a tumor inside a human body,” Chordoma Foundation Research Manager Patty Cogswell explains. “We can treat these mice with promising drugs to determine their effect on tumor growth and survival.”
Testing drugs in PDX models can indicate which drugs are likely to be effective for chordoma patients and can provide powerful justification for human clinical trials. Because each individual’s tumor, and thus every PDX model, is unique, it is important to test drugs in multiple PDX models to ensure that findings are broadly applicable to chordoma patients.
“Having a collection of PDX models available for testing is a critical step in reaching our goal of initiating new clinical trials and ultimately finding effective treatments for chordoma patients,” Cogswell notes.
First PDX models for chordoma
While PDX mouse models exist for many cancers, the lack of models for chordoma has been a major barrier to research and treatment development. The goal is to create a collection of at least ten validated chordoma PDX mouse models, housed at START and available for researchers all over the world to test potential therapies. To spur the development of new PDX models needed to establish the collection, the Chordoma Foundation is offering $10,000 prizes to investigators for each new PDX model. The first five prizes are being funded through a generous, anonymous donation.
The Foundation is currently working with investigators at several international institutions to validate six promising models, making sure these tumors can be successfully propagated in multiple generations of mice while retaining the original tumor’s characteristics. Several validated models should be at START’s San Antonio headquarters by the end of 2014. The global cancer drug-testing firm will graft and expand each model and create frozen tissue fragments that can be shipped to other investigators to carry out drug testing.
“START is very excited to partner with the Chordoma Foundation and to serve as their centralized research repository for chordoma tumor models,” said Michael J. Wick, PhD, START’s director of preclinical research. “We share the Foundation’s goal of accelerating development of new treatments, and ultimately a cure, for this rare and challenging form of cancer, and look forward to using our unique expertise in establishing and testing preclinical cancer models to identify potential new therapies.”
Researchers: For information on how to obtain chordoma PDX models, contact our research team.
Want to help grow this important collection?
- For $10,000, you can fund a prize for a new chordoma PDX mouse model.
- For $6,500, you can bank a new PDX model, making it available for researchers in perpetuity.
- If you are a chordoma patient with an upcoming surgery, by participating in the Chordoma Foundation Biobank, your excess tumor tissue could be used to create a new PDX model. To learn more, contact our research team.
To learn about other ways you can help support this vital resource, please contact Josh Sommer.