The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is sowing the seeds of advanced cancer treatment in the Prairie State. Through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) program, the department has granted engineering groups at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign two awards totaling about $54 million to develop new techniques for both studying and removing tumors.
One $21 million award will empower a group led by Bill King, Ph.D., to build an automated production line for 3D tumor models. Three-dimensional models of tumors grown from cancer cells exist for a few types of cancers, but are more difficult to grow than their simpler two-dimensional counterparts. These models are used to both study cancer biology and test potential treatments.
In an Aug. 20 release, King said the work “will create a fundamentally new manufacturing technology that uses artificial intelligence, robotics and vision systems to monitor and control the growth of tumor models.”
The team will use imaging technology to monitor model tumors as they grow, with an AI algorithm analyzing the images to determine how to best adjust conditions to keep each tumor growing. A fast, automated process for developing 3D tumor models would potentially enable physicians to create bespoke models for individual patients, allowing them to test out treatments on the model before moving into the patient.
The other project, led by Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D., will develop another tool powered by imaging and AI. It will be used to verify that a surgery has successfully removed all of a patient’s cancerous cells. By confirming that all the cancer is really gone, the researchers hope to prevent patients from having to go back under the knife to remove lingering cells.
“The fact that approximately 20% of patients undergoing breast-conserving surgery have positive microscopic margins requiring a second operation in 2024 should not be acceptable,” team member James Jakub, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic said in an Aug. 13 release. “We are optimistic this partnership and novel technology can allow us to do better.”
To develop their tool, Boppart’s team will receive up to $33 million from ARPA-H’s Precision Surgical Interventions program. According to the program website, award amounts are ceilings that recipients can reach if they hit contractual milestones.