Establishment of an in vitro and in vivo pipeline for precision medicine in neuroendocrine tumors

Principal Investigator: 
Prof. Nadia Mercader, Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Co-Investigator:
PD Dr. Ilaria Marinoni, Institute of Pathology. For more information, please visit the website. 

Co-Investigator:
Dr. med. Dr. phil. Corina Kim-Fuchs, Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital.

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are rare cancers appearing in different body parts. The only curative therapeutic option to date is surgery and it is not possible to predict which individual patient will benefit from which palliative treatment. This might be due to the high degree of heterogeneity of the tumors. We aim to develop a screening platform for patient-specific NET drug response by generating patient derived tumoroids as well as using a zebrafish xenotransplantation model to measure tumor extravasation and angiogenesis. The pipeline shall allow a faster and more precise therapy strategy selection for NET patients.