ADAPT PhD researcher at TU Dublin, Mohd Rifqi Rafsanjani, recently presented research on chemical imaging of colorectal cancer response in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models at the Annual Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR).
The paper, Chemical imaging for segregation of colorectal cancer response in patient-derived xenograft models, presents how two PDX mice models of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRCs; CRC0076 and CRC0344) were interrogated for spectral imaging markers discriminating on response to 5-fluoro-uracil(FU)- based chemotherapy (FOLFOX), ABT-199, and a combination of both. Spectral imaging referenced previous findings in vivo which reported differential tumour growth responses towards ABT-199.
The team predicted that using FTIR spectroscopy, they are able to deploy more robust machine learning models that will uncover the biochemical and spatial information of mCRCs due to the massive spectral data generated from the chemical images. A single image from the study generated over 36,000 spectral data points. Combined with the stain-free method of FTIR spectroscopy, it is expected to provide additional advantages in future clinical settings. This study represents a preliminary step towards integrating biospectroscopy data with gene expression data of the mCRC PDX models, conducted in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgery Ireland.
The Annual Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research is a four day congress dedicated to basic, preclinical and translational cancer research across a wide breadth of topics. It highlights the latest research and brings together the cancer research community to inspire innovation and build knowledge, connections and collaborations. The European Association for Cancer Research is a non-profit membership association dedicated to the advancement of cancer research.
Further information can be accessed here (abstract number EACR23-1384).
