Inclusion of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Drug Screening Assays to Evaluate Pancreatic Cancer Resistance to Therapeutic Drugs

Scientists identified that a 3D co-culture model of MIA PaCa-2 or PANC-1 with cancer-associated fibroblasts showed an increased chemoresistance to gemcitabine when compared to standard 2D mono-cultures a difference to paclitaxel which showed no measurable difference between the 2D and 3D models, suggesting a complex interaction between the drug in study and the cell type used.