Press release

Published: 18 February 2025

12-year-old boy cured of rare cancer

Modern animal-free methods can save lives, as demonstrated by the case of Peter, who was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue tumor at the age of 12. Although chemotherapy initially showed success, the cancer returned after just a few months. In this life-threatening situation, an effective therapy was identified using animal-free methods, and today, at 16 years old, Peter is considered cancer-free. Doctors Against Animal Experiments advocates for the consistent use of animal-free research methods. Unlike animal testing, these methods provide results that are directly applicable to humans and—like in Peter’s case—even to individual patients.

Peter suffered from rhabdomyosarcoma, a malignant soft tissue tumor that grew above his eye. After his relapse, no standard treatment was available, and the average survival time for children in such cases is only about eight months (1). Peter’s doctors took a sample of his tumor and sent it to the Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ).

At KiTZ, scientists cultivated small mini-tumors from the tumor sample. These miniature replicas of the original tumor allowed various medications to be tested. It took about three weeks to obtain results: out of approximately 80 tested drugs, two were effective against Peter’s mini-tumors. The now 16-year-old boy received the recommended therapy over a period of nine months and has been cancer-free since November 2023 (1).

The testing of Peter’s mini-tumors was conducted as part of the INFORM program (INdividualized Therapy FOr Relapsed Malignancies in Childhood). This international research project combines results from mini-tumor testing with genetic analyses and expert evaluations. INFORM has already been established in 13 countries, involving over 100 pediatric cancer centers, and has collected data from more than 2,000 patients (2).

“With mini-tumors, the effectiveness of various drugs can be tested directly on a patient’s tumor cells in a short period of time,” explains Dr. Johanna Walter, scientific advisor at Doctors Against Animal Experiments. “Mini-tumors are not only used in personalized medicine but also in drug development. Instead of testing new compounds on animals, they can be studied using human mini-tumors,” Walter continues.

Personalized medicine utilizing mini-tumors is a prime example of the effectiveness of animal-free methods. While animal testing fails due to biological differences between animals and humans, human mini-tumors provide not only human-relevant results but also patient-specific insights that can save lives.

References

1. Steinbeck M./with dpa. Wie das Züchten von Minitumoren krebskranken Kindern helfen kann (in German), LABO, 02/04/2025
2. Peterziel H. et al. Drug sensitivity profiling of 3D tumor tissue cultures in the pediatric precision oncology program INFORM, npj Precision Oncology 2022, 6: 94