Cell lines

On 3/31, I went on a lab tour at MGH. While I’m interested in seeing the labs, what really brought me here was seeing the patient derived models lab. Here, my cancer cells are being grown and studied to find effective treatments for me and for patients in the future.

The patient derived models project at MGH creates living cell lines from pieces of cancer tissue removed from patients lungs. These cell lines are models of the cancer in my body in a petri dish. On a model, they can then test novel drugs and combinations at a scale that impossible when testing in my body. For any given cancer patient, you can only try a handful a treatments, many with significant side effects. In the model, you can test thousands of combinations of different treatments and doses.

Special thanks to every who supported this groundbreaking cancer research by giving my MGH fundraiser! It’s because of all of you that this research is possible!