Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic on the Clinical Need for Personalizing Cancer Care

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD, BS, MS, Mikati Foundation professor, Biomedical Engineering, Medical Sciences Laboratory for STEM Cells and Tissue Engineering, Columbia University School of Medicine, discusses the clinical need for personalizing cancer care.

There is a discrepancy between the predictions of preclinical animal models for cancer and cancer progression in humans, Vunjak-Novakovic says, noting that cancer varies significantly between individual patients, Vunjak-Novakovic explains. Although preclinical cultures and animal models can provide valuable information about how cancer behaves and reacts to treatment, they are limited in what they can tell investigators on an individual level, Vunjak-Novakovic explains.

Researchers are attempting to overcome these limitations by building a human-based system that can be individualized for a specific patient, Vunjak-Novakovic continues. These individualized systems will utilize imaging and other measurements to follow the evolution of cancer over time for a given patient, Vunjak-Novakovic concludes