'Virtual tumour' model to offer new treatment against cancer

Business Standard: British scientists have built a novel virtual reality (VR) 3D model of cancer that will help increase the understanding of cancer as well as in the search for new treatment.

Researchers from the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) took from a patient the tumour sample -- a one millimetre cubed piece of breast cancer tissue biopsy -- containing around 100,000 cells, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The team cut the tissue into wafer thin slices and scanned them. Then they stained the slices with markers to show their molecular make-up and DNA characteristics.

The tumour was rebuilt using VR, which was analysed within a VR laboratory.

"No one has examined the geography of a tumour in this level of detail before; it is a new way of looking at cancer," the BBC quoted Greg Hannon, Director of CRUK's Cambridge Institute, as saying.

"Understanding how cancer cells interact with each other and with healthy tissues is critical if we are going to develop new therapies. Looking at tumours using this new system is so much more dynamic than the static 2D versions we are used to," said Karen Vousden, CRUK's chief scientist.

To study the tumour, the researchers became avatars within the 'virtual' laboratory whilst the cancer was represented by a multi-coloured mass of bubbles. BS