What Makes Up A Tumour?

Welcome
The Lab
Discover Cells
3D Tumour
Cell Types
Every Patient Is Different
Immunotherapy
Patient A
- Profile
- Tumour
- Treatment
Patient B
- Profile
- Tumour
- Treatment
Findings
Learn More

Cancer is complicated.

Take a look on the right at how different these breast cancers are.

The different colours show different types of cell.

Want to learn some more? Click Next when you're ready.

Welcome to the lab.

Today you're going to be a scientist and learn all about tumours. They're really complicated so we use microscopes to look at them in great detail.

Here's the microscope you'll use to study tumours in 2D.

Later on we'll be looking at tumours in 3D.

You're looking down the microscope and can see some cells.

Here's a diagram of what you can see.

Move your mouse around and hover over cells to find out what they are.

Drag your mouse to zoom in on a particular area.

How many cell types are there?

Now let's explore the tumour in 3D using a new technique.

Hover your mouse over a cell to show its type.

Drag your mouse around the tumour to rotate it.

Scroll your mouse to zoom in.

Look out for the blood vessel.

Hit Next to move on.

Now let's learn about each cell type.

Click the buttons on the left to add cells.

Every person is unique, so it's no surprise that every cancer patient and tumour is too...

You're going to see the tumours from two different patients.

We'll examine them in 3D and try to predict what might happen if we treat them with immunotherapy.

First, let's see how immunotherapy works...

How does immunotherapy work?

Take a look at this illustration on the right.

Cancer cells have proteins on their surface that stop T cells attacking them just like a shield.

Some immunotherapy drugs block these proteins meaning these shields no longer work.

T cells can then attack the tumour.

Now, let's say hi to Patient A...

Let's take a look at Patient A.

Look at the patient's clipboard. You've been given some information.

Each patient has a unique story and set of characteristics.

Use the notes to figure out which organ is being affected by cancer.

Hit Next when you're ready.

Patient A has had a biopsy to sample part of their tumour.

Let's examine the tumour more closely to see what's going on inside.

Now we have a question for you.

Can you tell us which characteristic the tumour has?

There are lots of dendritic cells.

The tumour environment contains no cells.

Rich with fibroblasts surrounding the tumour, and macrophages inside.

There are no macrophages.

What would happen if we treated Patient A?

Based on what you know about Patient A and their tumour do you think immunotherapy will shrink it?

Hit the Treat button to find out.

Hover your mouse over the line to track what's happening to Patient A.

When the graph reaches the end, click Next for an explanation of what happened.

Now let's take a look at Patient B

Once again, examine Patient B's notes.

Try to figure out which organ it is that's cancerous in Patient B.

Hit Next when you're ready.

Patient B is just out of surgery.

Let’s take a closer look. Does it look different to Patient A's tumour?

Now we have a question for you.

Can you tell us which characteristic the tumour has?

A net of fibroblasts surround the tumour

Dendritic cells are the most abundant cell type

NK cells are infiltrating the tumour

The tumour has no blood supply

What would happen if we treat Patient B?

Do you think immunotherapy will shrink the tumour?

Hit the Treat button to find out.

Hover your mouse over the line to track what's happening to Patient B.

When the graph reaches the end, click Next for an explanation of what happened.

You've completed your experiments. Well done.

In this exercise you learnt that Patients A and B not only have different types of cancer. They also have tumours with different types of cell.

We mimicked what might happen if Patients A and B were treated with immunotherapy (in reality treatment decisions are very complex and these patients may not have been treated with immunotherapy).

Throughout this experience you have observed what tumours really look like when we look down the microscope and different cell types are lit up by different colours.

You have also used 2D and 3D models of tumours to understand more about their complexity.

Click back through the tabs to have another go. Hit Next to go to move on. You're almost done!

Congratulations and good work scientist!

Today you learned that tumours are made of many different cell types, which can change how we treat a patient’s cancer.

Here at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, we investigate how these cells interact with tumours, to develop better cancer treatments for the future.

Check out our video to find out more about us and what we do.

To see more of the content from our team, and everything else that is happening across the Royal Society Summer Science 2021, head to the hub.

To learn more about what makes up a tumour, visit our home page.

To learn more about fibroblasts check out Dr Claus Jorgensen's work.

Check out how Dr Santiago Zelenay and his lab are investigating how the immune system and cancer interacts.

Take a look at how Dr Amaya Viros and her team are studying skin cancers.

Supported by Peak