Kibur Science Spotlight: Predicting Treatment Outcomes with Microdevices and AI 

Over 19,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2023, and it is fifth in cancer deaths among women(American Cancer Society). While there continues to be innovations in treatment, there lacks an effective method of predicting patients’ response to second-line therapies. This lack of a predictive assay can be problematic, as individuals may have varying responses to second-line treatments and these “trial and error” strategies can be burdensome to both patient and the clinician. 

Kibur’s most recent study examined seven PDX ovarian tumors and the usage of the NanoNail™device to predict the tumor’s response to various drugs. Tissues from seven patients were obtained and implanted into mice to expand and regrow over the course of four weeks. The NanoNail contains eighteen wells which can be filled with microdoses of selected treatments. In this study, doxorubicin, topotecan, and paclitaxel were used in quadruplicate leaving six wells empty as controls. The NanoNail is implanted directly into the tumor of each mouse for 24 hours, as the drug is released from the wells. There is minimal crossover between drugs because the reservoirs of the device are arranged in nine distinct levels with two wells per level which allows for easy recognition of each reservoir during analysis. Following microdosage of the drugs, the device and surrounding tissue are extracted and treated for immunofluorescence, then digitally analyzed for tumor response. 

Following the image analysis, a modeling program was developed to predict the PDX treatment outcomes using the data from the tumor response. This model demonstrated that the NanoNail’s microdoses could predict overall IP ovarian PDX tumor response. Further research should be conducted to further validate the usage of the NanoNail and its predictive abilities. This study shows promise for the NanoNail, and how it could be key to developing personalized therapy treatments within solid tumor oncology. For more information regarding the NanoNail, check out our website: https://kiburmed.com/. 

Link to the study: ​​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1936523322000869?via%3Dihub