Girona university researchers isolate breast cancer stem cells with 3D printing

A biomedical engineering research group from the University of Girona (UdG) has managed to isolate aggressive breast cancer stem cells thanks to 3D printing.

The technology is pioneering in Spain and will help in the development of effective drugs to fight the disease.

Seeing better tumor cells

With small, three-dimensional matrices known as scaffolds, the researchers can better see the tumor cells, which remain latent and can provoke a relapse.

This allows the cells to be isolated with the aim of identifying the markers that can reproduce the cancer, so that they can then be analyzed and eliminated.

International cooperation

The research will now be broadened with international cooperation and, in the mid-term, expanded to include a subtype of lung cancer.

The ONCOen3D research project focuses on a subtype of triple-negative breast cancer, which is more aggressive, and mostly affects young patients.