Zebrafish Avatar-test predicts patient's tumor response to chemotherapy in breast cancer: a co-clinical study towards personalized medicine

Raquel Valente Mendes; Joana M. Ribeiro; Helena S. Gouveia; Cátia Rebelo de Almeida; Mireia Castillo-Martín; María José Brito; Rita Canas‐Marques; Eva Batista; Celeste Alves; Berta Sousa; Pedro F Gouveia; Miguel Godinho Ferreira; Maria João Cardoso; Fátima Cardoso; Rita Fior

doi:10.1038/s41698-025-00882-0

Cancer Biologynpj Precision OncologyApr 1, 2025

Peer-reviewed journal article

Zebrafish Avatar-test predicts patient's tumor response to chemotherapy in breast cancer: a co-clinical study towards personalized medicine

Raquel Valente Mendes iD, Joana M. Ribeiro iD, Helena S. Gouveia iD, Cátia Rebelo de Almeida iD, Mireia Castillo-Martín iD, María José Brito iD, Rita Canas‐Marques iD, Eva Batista iD, Celeste Alves iD, Berta Sousa iD, Pedro F Gouveia iD, Miguel Godinho Ferreira iD, Maria João Cardoso iD, Fátima Cardoso iD, Rita Fior iD

Abstract

Chemotherapy remains the mainstay in most high-risk breast cancer (BC) settings, with several equivalent options of treatment. However, the efficacy of each treatment varies between patients and there is currently no test to determine which option will be the most effective for each individual patient. Here, we developed a fast in-vivo test for BC therapy screening: the zebrafish patient derived xenograft model (zAvatars), where in-vivo results can be obtained in just 10 days. To determine the predictive value of the BC zAvatars we performed a clinical study, where zAvatars were treated with the same therapy as the donor-patient and their response to therapy was compared. Our data shows a 100% correlation between patients clinical response to treatment and its matching zAvatar. Altogether, our results suggest that the zAvatar model constitutes a promising in-vivo assay to optimize cancer treatments in truly personalized manner.

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