Design and Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Printed Scaffolds for Cancer Precision Medicine

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D)-engineered scaffolds have been widely investigated as drug delivery systems (DDS) or cancer models with the aim to develop effective cancer therapies. The in vitro and in vivo models developed via 3D printing (3DP) and tissue engineering concepts have significantly contributed to our understanding of cellcell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions in the cancer microenvironment. Moreover, 3D tumor models were used to study the therapeutic efficiency of anticancer drugs. The present study aims to provide an overview of applying the 3DP and tissue engineering concepts for cancer studies with suggestions for future research directions. The 3DP technologies being used for the fabrication of personalized DDS have been highlighted and the potential technical approaches and challenges associated with the fused deposition modeling, the inkjetpowder bed, and stereolithography as the most promising 3DP techniques for drug delivery purposes are briefly described. Then, the advances, challenges, and future perspectives in tissue-engineered cancer models for precision medicine are discussed. Overall, future advances in this arena depend on the continuous integration of knowledge from cancer biology, biofabrication techniques, multiomics and patient data, and medical needs to develop effective treatments ultimately leading to improved clinical outcomes.

Coronavirus disease 2019: A tissue engineering and regenerative medicine perspective

“…40,41 Human organ-on-chip technology has been developed and extensively used to recapitulate in vivo cellular responses to drugs or toxic agents. 32,42,43 The tissue engineering and organ-on-chip technologies apply engineering principles to biological processes and enable rapid translation of technologies from the benchtop to the bedside. 44 Previous studies reported lung-on-chip models to offer alternative preclinical tools to mimic human alveolar epithelial cells' responses to viral infection due to their capacity to recapitulate organ-level physiology and pathophysiology.…”

“…Human organ‐on‐chip technology has been developed and extensively used to recapitulate in vivo cellular responses to drugs or toxic agents 32,42,43 . The tissue engineering and organ‐on‐chip technologies apply engineering principles to biological processes and enable rapid translation of technologies from the benchtop to the bedside 44 .…”

“…Apart from the development of in vitro models, tissue engineering technologies enable the evolution of the next generation of drug delivery systems and facilitate vaccine development and delivery. 43,44 Tissue-engineered systems allow the controlled extended release of drugs, which are advantageous over multiple injections for clinical practice. Besides, the new generation of biomaterials allows us to target the areas of high viral load specifically and extendedly.…”

Local Doxorubicin Delivery via 3D‐Printed Porous Scaffolds Reduces Systemic Cytotoxicity and Breast Cancer Recurrence in Mice

“…[13][14][15][16][17][18] For breast cancer, several methods have been investigated to locally deliver chemotherapy drugs utilizing soft implants such as hydrogel and electrospun scaffolds. [19][20][21] For example, Seib et al developed doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded silk hydrogel films and evaluated them in a mouse orthotopic breast cancer model. After six weeks, they observed a significant reduction in the tumor recurrence compared with intravenous (I.V.)…”

“…These include: i) the therapeutic effects of the loaded drugs may be altered because of the elevated heat or chemicals during the manufacturing process; and ii) the release of the agents depends mainly on the degradation of the polymers, which may be exceedingly slow. [21,33] Recently, our group devised a manufacturing technique that allows us to create microscale pores inside the struts of conventional macroscale porous scaffolds made by melt extrusion. [34] These bimodal scaffolds are manufactured by combining melt extrusion additive manufacturing with salt leaching.…”