Abstract C02: Establishment of a human PDAC explant culture model for treatment prediction and characterization of the tumor microenvironment

Introduction: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth most common cause of death from cancer, with a 5-year survival of less than 8%. To date, the therapeutic approaches are chemotherapy regimens. Despite promising data from various preclinical models, new immunotherapeutic agents like checkpoint inhibitors (CPI), vaccines, oncolytic viruses, or TGFβ inhibitors do not show a benefit in the overall survival of patients. Thus, especially in PDAC and in respect to the immune system, there is an urgent need for sufficient preclinical systems that can mirror a human patient scenario. Therefore, we developed a human-based pipeline of whole explant tissue culture using PDAC to predict responses of the tumor to different types of treatments in a personalized manner. Material and Methods: Human cancer tissue is taken into culture after surgery for several days. We tested different timings and technical variations (e.g., thickness of explants, medium changing protocols) to find superior conditions for tissue viability. In culture, the explants can be treated with (pre-) clinical-grade drugs and subsequently processed for quality controls via evaluation of the tissue integrity (on HE 2019 Sept 6-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(24 Suppl):Abstract nr C02.