1. Zebrafish Avatar-test forecasts clinical response to chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer
- Author
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Bruna Costa, Marta F. Estrada, António Gomes, Laura M. Fernandez, José M. Azevedo, Vanda Póvoa, Márcia Fontes, António Alves, António Galzerano, Mireia Castillo-Martin, Ignacio Herrando, Shermann Brandão, Carla Carneiro, Vítor Nunes, Carlos Carvalho, Amjad Parvaiz, Ana Marreiros, and Rita Fior
- Subjects
Science - Abstract
Abstract Cancer patients often undergo rounds of trial-and-error to find the most effective treatment because there is no test in the clinical practice for predicting therapy response. Here, we conduct a clinical study to validate the zebrafish patient-derived xenograft model (zAvatar) as a fast predictive platform for personalized treatment in colorectal cancer. zAvatars are generated with patient tumor cells, treated exactly with the same therapy as their corresponding patient and analyzed at single-cell resolution. By individually comparing the clinical responses of 55 patients with their zAvatar-test, we develop a decision tree model integrating tumor stage, zAvatar-apoptosis, and zAvatar-metastatic potential. This model accurately forecasts patient progression with 91% accuracy. Importantly, patients with a sensitive zAvatar-test exhibit longer progression-free survival compared to those with a resistant test. We propose the zAvatar-test as a rapid approach to guide clinical decisions, optimizing treatment options and improving the survival of cancer patients.
- Published
- 2024
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