Magnetic resonance imaging has been used to follow noninvasively tumor neovascularization and tumor growth in a model system of multicellular C6 rat glioma spheroids implanted s.c. in nude mice. By positioning a single spheroid approximately 1 cm from the site of incision both the vascularization of the tumor and the wound healing processes were spatially separated and could be simultaneously f...

Ovarian cancer presents as an aggressive, advanced stage cancer with widespread metastases that depend primarily on multicellular spheroids in the peritoneal fluid. To identify new druggable pathways related to metastatic progression and spheroid formation, we integrated microRNA and mRNA sequencing data from 293 tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) ovarian cancer cohort. We identified mi...

While 3-D tissue models have received increasing attention over the past several decades in the development of traditional anti-cancer therapies, their potential application for the evaluation of advanced drug delivery systems such as nanomedicines has been largely overlooked. In particular, new insight into drug resistance associated with the 3-D tumor microenvironment has called into question...

Rapid volumetric growth and extensive invasion into brain parenchyma are hallmarks of malignant neuroepithelial tumors in vivo. Little is known, however, about the mechanical impact of the growing brain tumor on its microenvironment. To better understand the environmental mechanical response, we used multiparticle tracking methods to probe the environment of a dynamically expanding, multicellul...

Multicellular cancer spheroids (MCSs) have emerged as a promising in vitro model that recaptures many features of solid tumours vivo. To generate spheroids, cells are encapsulated microgels with high throughput. While the biophysical properties spheroid and biomaterial influence function behavior cells, characterization these remains largely unexplored. In addition, existing techniques lack con...

Multicellular spheroids composed of transformed cells are known to mimic the growth characteristics of tumors and to develop gradients in proliferation with increasing size. This progressive accumulation of quiescent cells is presumably an active process that occurs in response to the microenvironmental stresses that develop within the three-dimensional structure, and, yet, little is known rega...