Bioengineering Prostate Tumour Microenvironments to Study Immune Crosstalk and Drug Screening

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most prevalent cancer in men. While early stage PCa is treatable, the 5-year survival rate significantly declines to about 30% once the disease spreads. Despite advances in drug development, many promising treatments fail in clinical trials, partly thanks to the inability of current laboratory models to accurately reflect the complexity of human disease.

Non-cancerous cells surrounding the tumour play a pivotal role in driving cancer progression and resistance to therapy. Developing a model that reflects this would be highly valuable for future research.

This project seeks to address this by engineering a novel, 3D hydrogel model. This model will incorporate patient-derived prostate cancer cells along with critical components from around the tumour, including immune cells and fibroblast cells. By mimicking the biochemical, mechanical and immunological characteristics of patient tumours, this model will more accurately reflect the patient’s tumour conditions.

We will leverage this model to test the efficacy of drugs currently in clinical trials, focusing on understanding treatment responses and the complex interactions between cancer cells and their surrounding environment. This model is a significant step forward in preclinical drug screening, potentially improving clinical outcomes and rapid screening of new treatment strategies for patients with advanced PCa.