The advances in cancer immunotherapy come with several roadblocks limiting their widespread use and their benefits to so far only a small subset of patients. The lack of representative preclinical models that translate to human immunity (e.g. animal models) remains to be one of the greatest challenges.
In recent years, immunocompetent Cancer-on-Chip (iCoC) models emerged as alternative, powerful tools to model human cancer and its complex interaction with the immune system in vitro. By combining microfabrication and biomaterials with tissue engineering and cell biology, these engineered models can provide entirely new and human-relevant insights for immunotherapy research. Hence, iCoCs constitute a valuable immune-competent nonclinical model for safety and efficacy testing of immune-based therapeutics.
In the framework of the IMI2 imSAVAR project, we recently published a review article about the current state, the opportunities, and the future applications of iCoCs as a valuable asset for immune-safety assesment. Read the full article here.