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Probing tumor-stroma interactions and response to photodynamic therapy in a 3D pancreatic cancer-fibroblast co-culture model

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a lethal disease that is often unresectable by the time of diagnosis and is typically non-responsive to chemo- and radiotherapy, resulting in a five year survival of only 3%. Tumors of the pancreas are characterized by a dense fibrous stroma rich in extracellular matrix proteins, which is implicated in poor therapeutic response, though its precise roles remain poorly understood. Indeed, while the use of therapeutics that target the stroma is an emerging paradigm in the clinical management of this disease, the primary focus of such efforts is to enhance drug penetration through dense fibrous stroma and it is unclear to what extent the characteristically rigid stroma of pancreatic tumors imparts drug resistance by acting as a complex signaling partner, or merely as a physical barrier for drug delivery. Here we use 3D in vitro co-cultures of pancreatic cancer cells and normal human fibroblasts as a model system to study heterotypic interactions between these populations. Leveraging this in vitro model along with image-based methods for quantification of growth and therapeutic endpoints, we characterize these co-cultures and examine the role of verteporfin-based photodynamic therapy (PDT) for targeting tumor-fibroblast interactions in pancreatic tumors.