Advances and Challenges in 3D Bioprinted Cancer Models: Opportunities for Personalized Medicine and Tissue Engineering

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular disease, claiming not only a staggering number of lives but also causing considerable health and economic devastation globally, particularly in less-developed countries. Additionally, therapeutic interventions are further impeded by patient-to-patient differences in responses to anti-cancer drugs. Therefore, personalized medicines approach is crucial for this specific patient group including use of molecular and genetic screens to find appropriate stratification of patients that respond (and those that will not) to treatment regimen. But the information on which risk stratification method can be used to hone in on those cancer types and patients that will be likely responders to a specific anti-cancer agent remains elusive for most cancers. Novel developments in 3D bioprinting technology have been widely applied to recreate relevant bioengineered tumor organotypic structures, capable of mimicking the human tissue and microenvironment or adequate drug response in high throughput screening settings. Experiences are autogenously printed in the form of 3D bioengineered tissue using a computer-aided design concept where multiple layers each include different cell types and compatible biomaterials to build up specific configurations. Patient-derived cancer and stromal cells together with genetic material, extracellular matrix proteins and growth factors are used to create bioprinted cancer models which provide a possible platform for the screening of new personalized therapies in advance. To encourage the growth of cells and biological material in those personalized tumor models/implants both natural as well synthetic biopolymers have been used. These models may help in a physiologically relevant cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions with 3D heterogeneity resembling real tumors.