ARTURO - Assessing the role of intratumoral microbiota in therapy responses using patient-derived tumor-on-chip

Challenge: Primary or acquired resistance to therapies is a major challenge in oncology. Recent research suggests that intratumoral microbiota may contribute to anti-cancer drug resistance. Solution: ARTURO will ethically tackle this problem by using an innovative state-of-the-art 3D tumor-on-chip (ToC) model. Plan: The role of patient-derived bacteria in tumor ecosystem behaviors and drug responses, will be deciphered. The development of advanced computational methods constitutes a major force and innovation. The focus will be on two frequent poorly-understood cancer subtypes. End-users’ perspectives will be addressed using a co-design approach to develop ethically sound cancer-related innovation and health policies. Impact: ARTURO results are expected to lead to a deep understanding of processes underpinning tumor-host interactions, helping to conceive novel microbiota-based intervention strategies. ARTURO will take ethical, social, ethnical, cultural, and gender aspects into account, facilitating the translation of ARTURO's innovations to clinical practice and co-design of policies. ARTURO will contribute to future developments in cancer precision medicine and diagnostics and to the EU Mission – Cancer.