Gene therapy is a potential method for cancer treatment but successful delivery of genes remains a problem for its clinical use. This study aims to create a 3D lab-based model of breast cancer to mimic tumours, and to assess their ability, when combined with different methods of gene delivery, as effective anticancer platforms. Traditionally, cancer cell culture has used 2D tissue culture plastic to grow cells while the alternative uses animal models but both have associated problems. Recently, 3D cell culturing has been proposed to bridge the gap between 2D culture and animal models. Collagen, a substance found in most tissues, is used to make scaffolds to allow cell growth and thus is used to make the gene delivery platforms. These collagen scaffolds may act as 3D lab “tumours” that mimic primary tumours. To date, we have successfully grown prostate, neuroblastoma, lung and breast cancer cells on these scaffolds. This study aims to assess different gene delivery vectors within the breast cancer scaffold-based models to efficiently deliver nucleic acids including micro (mi)RNA and silencing (si)RNA to prevent cell growth and increase cell death.
