Growing tumors in a dish, scientists try to personalize pancreatic cancer treatment

Only about 15% of advanced pancreatic patients are alive two years after their diagnosis. Margaret Schwarzhans has now made it 2 1/2 years – and not just survived, but thrived.

While it’s impossible to say why she’s been so fortunate, she partly credits her mental state. Schwarzhans, who turns 54 Friday, meditates daily, does yoga a few times a week, and takes regular walks.  A former nurse, she’s decorated her house and car with inspirational quotes and draws empowering pictures. And she gets occasional home-cooked meals from one daughter who’s a chef.

That’s the high-touch part of her treatment. On good days, she said, she can just about forget she has cancer.

Then there’s the high-tech part. Using experimental protocols, some of Schwarzhans’ tumor cells are growing in lab dishes at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Those avatars of her own tumor, tiny balls of cells called organoids, can be distributed among lab dishes and each dosed with a different drug.