We've updated our Privacy Policy to make it clearer how we use your personal data. We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. You can read our Cookie Policy here.

Advertisement

Tissue Is the Issue for Novel Cancer Drug Discovery

Surgeons wearing blue gloves collecting tissue with forceps and placing into a tube.
Credit: iStock
Listen with
Speechify
0:00
Register for free to listen to this article
Thank you. Listen to this article using the player above.

Want to listen to this article for FREE?

Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.

Read time: 3 minutes

With a background in surgical oncology, cancer research has always been my passion, even during my medical studies. Eventually, this dedication led to my transition into full-time research and a move to the United States to join the Lombardi Cancer Center. It was here that a recognition of the critical importance of tissue standardization in advancing cancer research became evident.


A lot of attention has been given to culturing conditions and experimental protocols, yet the tissue itself – the very foundation of cancer research – is often taken for granted. People assume that once excised, the sampled tissue is stable, but that is not the case. Just as the brain sustains damage within minutes of oxygen deprivation, excised tissue begins to change at the molecular level due to ischemia (lack of blood flow) – this realization was key to developing a standardized procedure for tissue handling.

Bridging the gap in tissue handling

To truly understand cancer, tissue samples need to be processed as quickly and as carefully as possible, preserving their biological integrity. Developing standardized processes for tissue collection thus became the cornerstone of Indivumed, the biotech company based in Hamburg.


When observing a typical hospital infrastructure, one sees that surgeons are focused on the patient and removing the tumor, while pathologists are focused on analyzing the tissue afterward – which makes total sense. However, the time between these events is a gray area where no one takes responsibility for the tissue. If the tissue is not handled properly, it can degrade, compromising the integrity of the sample. This is a critical issue because insights into new potential therapeutic targets can be lost when tissue is compromised. 


When considering the millions of dollars that are spent on drug discovery, it is unacceptable for poor tissue quality to introduce avoidable risks. Indivumed helped solve this by placing trained personnel in partner clinics worldwide, ensuring that tissues are processed quickly and properly in a standardized way. It seems like a simple, sensible solution – but it works. 


There are, of course, a few challenges to getting hospitals on board with this process. Money is one aspect, but it is also about getting surgeons, pathologists and nurses to adopt this new process – even if they do not benefit from it directly. In the early days, we provided hospitals with access to our biobank free of charge, which helped. More recently, we have focused on providing access to data collected, which allows hospitals to conduct their own research using this valuable resource.


Recently, we published a research article demonstrating that thousands of potential therapeutic targets are lost if tissue is not collected in a standardized way – backing over 20 years of work. While most of the oncology field logically understands this, it has never been conclusively proven – and if there is no proof; no one really takes notice. However, it is not just about preserving tissue, it is about ensuring the data generated from those samples are reliable. This approach benefits the entire research community, providing a stronger foundation for future discoveries.

The rise of multiomics in cancer research

Cancer is an incredibly complex disease – no single layer of data is enough to fully understand it. To gain a holistic view of tumor biology, we need to analyze DNA, RNA, proteins and phosphoproteins.


The term “multiomics” gets used in a lot of varied contexts nowadays. Many people claim to be doing multiomics, but they are often only looking at a limited dataset, for example, 10 proteins and some exome sequencing. What they are doing is not “omics,” and it is not “multi.”


At Indivumed, we perform whole-genome sequencing – rather than whole-exome sequencing – paired with whole transcriptome, miRNA, proteomics and phosphoproteomics data. This comprehensive dataset, based on tumor and normal tissue with 10–12 minutes of cold ischemia time, allows us to identify new therapeutic targets that others might miss.


By integrating multiple layers of data, we can uncover targets that are not obvious from genomics alone. This data can be compared between tumor and normal tissue samples from the same patient thanks to our extensive biobank, allowing us to identify specific molecular changes that drive cancer. This multiomics, multimodal strategy opens a wealth of potential therapeutic targets, offering more precise avenues for drug development. For pharmaceutical companies, this reduces the risks of their drug discovery efforts and increases the likelihood of success in clinical trials. 

Looking towards the future of precision medicine in cancer treatment

The future aim is to discover novel therapies that are much more effective across a shorter period of time. With the data we have collected and the targets we are discovering, we plan to guide therapies more accurately to individual patients. This is something that will have a massive impact on future cancer treatments.


Work in this area needs to remain flexible, adaptable and have an understanding of hospital culture. Collaboration is key, and it is important to be patient and modest in one’s approach. We have achieved a lot already, and with persistence, we expect to achieve even more.