Browsing by Author "Castillo-Martin, Mireia"
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- Zebrafish Avatar-test forecasts clinical response to chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancerPublication . Costa, Bruna; Estrada, Marta F.; Gomes, António; Fernandez, Laura M.; Azevedo, José M.; Póvoa, Vanda; Fontes, Márcia; Alves, António; Galzerano, António; Castillo-Martin, Mireia; Herrando, Ignacio; Brandão, Shermann; Carneiro, Carla; Nunes, Vítor; Carvalho, Carlos; Parvaiz, Amjad; Marreiros, Ana; Fior, RitaCancer patients often undergo rounds of trial-and-error to find the most effective treatment because there is no test in the clinical practice for predicting therapy response. Here, we conduct a clinical study to validate the zebrafish patient-derived xenograft model (zAvatar) as a fast predictive platform for personalized treatment in colorectal cancer. zAvatars are generated with patient tumor cells, treated exactly with the same therapy as their corresponding patient and analyzed at single-cell resolution. By individually comparing the clinical responses of 55 patients with their zAvatar-test, we develop a decision tree model integrating tumor stage, zAvatar-apoptosis, and zAvatar-metastatic potential. This model accurately forecasts patient progression with 91% accuracy. Importantly, patients with a sensitive zAvatar-test exhibit longer progression-free survival compared to those with a resistant test. We propose the zAvatar-test as a rapid approach to guide clinical decisions, optimizing treatment options and improving the survival of cancer patients.