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The Tumor Microenvironment

The Tumor Microenvironment

Every normal cell or tissue is embedded in a complex local environment called stroma, consisting of different cell types, a basal membrane, and blood vessels. As normal cells mutate and develop into cancer cells, their local environment also changes to allow cancer progression. The tumor microenvironment (TME) consists of a complex cellular matrix of stromal cells and the developing tumor. The cross-talk between cancer cells and surrounding stromal cells is critical to disrupt normal tissue...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Microfluidic Device for Recreating a Tumor Microenvironment in Vitro

Microfluidic Device for Recreating a Tumor Microenvironment in Vitro

Published on: November 20, 2011

Microfluidic technologies in tumour metabolism.

Meabh Doherty¹, Tongchuan Wang¹, Dimitrios A Lamprou¹

¹School of Pharmacy, Queens University Belfast, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.

International Journal of Pharmaceutics

|November 8, 2022

Summary

Microfluidic "tumor-on-chip" platforms enhance anti-cancer drug development by mimicking the tumor microenvironment. These advanced models improve pre-clinical testing and enable novel drug delivery systems for reduced toxicity.

Keywords:

Drug delivery Microfluidics Nanocarriers Nanoparticles (NPs)Tumour metabolism Tumour microenvironment Tumour-on-a-chip

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Area of Science:

Biomedical Engineering
Cancer Therapeutics
Drug Development

Background:

The tumor microenvironment poses significant challenges for anti-cancer drug development.
Conventional in vitro models often lack the physiological relevance needed for accurate pre-clinical evaluation.
Understanding cancer cell metabolism is key to developing effective and less toxic anti-neoplastic agents.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the current state-of-the-art of microfluidic technologies in cancer research.
To highlight the potential of microfluidic platforms for improving pre-clinical anti-cancer drug screening.
To discuss the application of microfluidics in developing advanced drug delivery systems.

Main Methods:

Review of emerging microfluidic platform technologies for recapitulating tumor microenvironment features.
Analysis of "tumor-on-chip" systems for authentic replication of tumor growth environments.
Exploration of microfluidic applications in creating nanoscale drug delivery vehicles.

Main Results:

Microfluidic platforms offer enhanced physiological relevance compared to conventional models.
Tumor-on-chip systems can accelerate the pre-clinical screening of anti-tumor drug combinations.
Microfluidic technologies enable the development of nanoscale vehicles for improved drug pharmacokinetics.

Conclusions:

Microfluidic technologies hold significant promise for advancing cancer therapeutics development.
These platforms can increase the translational relevance of pre-clinical data.
Further research is needed to overcome existing challenges in microfluidic applications for oncology.