PROBING CLINICAL RELEVANCE: ESTABLISHING THE EFFICACY OF C. NOVYI AGAINST A PANEL OF 2D CULTURED PANCREATIC CANCER CELLS

Pancreatic cancer presents a unique challenge for the development of effective oncotherapies. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of this type of tumor typically contains a dense desmoplastic barrier composed of aberrant extracellular matrix proteins, as well as an acidic, hypoxic and necrotic core. Additionally, the immune system surrounding this type of tumor has often been suppressed by the TME. Hence, choosing the correct model of the tumor microenvironment within which to test a potential anti-cancer therapy is a critical experimental design decision. While the typical solid tumor contains a complex microenvironment including both phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity, the methods used to model this disease state often do not reflect this complexity. This simplistic approach may have contributed to stagnant five-year survival rates experienced over the past four decades. Oncolytic bacteria, a class of bacteria with the innate ability to seek and destroy solid tumors has been revived from historical anecdotes in an attempt to overcome these challenges. Regardless of the promise of oncolytic bacteria, accurate assessment of their potential requires choosing the proper tumor model. This study explores the impact of cancer cell lines co-cultured with Wild-Type C. novyi to establish the efficacy of this oncolytic bacteria in a monolayer culture.