Methods of screening chemotherapeutic agents and treating cancer

1. A method for identifying one or more chemotherapeutic agents for treating a cancer, comprising:

providing a cancer cell sample including a population of bulk cancer cells and a population of cancer stem-like cells;

culturing a first portion of the cancer cell sample in a hydrodynamic focusing bioreactor under microgravity conditions and for a period of time sufficient to selectively increase the number of cancer stem-like cells;

contacting the population of cancer stem-like cells with one or more chemotherapeutic agents; and

detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic or not to the cancer stem-like cell, thereby identifying the one or more chemotherapeutic agents.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of identifying a type of bulk cancer cells present in the cancer cell sample such that the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are further selected based on the type of bulk cancer cells present in the cancer cell sample.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of:

culturing a second portion of the cancer cell sample under conditions and for a period of time sufficient to increase the number of bulk cancer cells;

contacting the bulk cancer cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents; and

detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic or not to the bulk cancer cells;

wherein the one or more chemotherapeutic agents selected for treating the cancer are cytotoxic to both the cancer stem-like cells and the bulk cancer cells.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein culturing the first portion of the cancer cell sample comprises inoculating about 1×10 6 cells.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein culturing the second portion of the cancer cell sample comprises inoculating about 1×10 6 cells.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising immunophenotyping the cancer cell sample to identify a type of cancer cell in the cancer cell sample.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the step of immunophenotyping the cancer cell sample is performed by flow cytometry using one or more antibodies against the cancer cell sample.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more antibodies are against CD24, CD34, CD38, CD44, CD133, CXCR4, OCT3/4, Nanog, or combinations thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents for a time period of about one hour.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic to the cancer stem-like cells comprises calculating a percentage of non-viable cancer stem-like cells.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the percentage of non-viable cancer stem-like cells is calculated using an assay selected from the group consisting of an MTT assay, a ALAMARBLUE Assay and a WST-8 assay.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cancer cell sample comprises a solid cancer cell sample, a liquid cancer cell sample, or combinations thereof.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the solid cancer cell sample comprises a lung cancer cell sample, a breast cancer cell sample, a central nervous system cancer cell sample, a colon cancer cell sample, a lymph node cancer cell sample, or combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 12 , where the liquid cancer cell sample comprises a leukemia cell sample, a lymphoma cell sample, or a myeloma cell sample.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are selected from the group consisting of cisplatin, oxaliplatin, arabinoside-C, VP-16, busulfan, methotrexate, CPT-11, temozolomide, and combinations thereof.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cancer cell sample is an ependymoma cell sample.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises contacting the cancer stem-like cells with a predetermined concentration of the one or more chemotherapeutic agents; and

wherein the predetermined concentration of the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises a concentration below a clinically relevant dosage, equal to the clinically relevant dosage, or above the clinically relevant dosage.

18. A method of treating a cancer in a subject in need thereof, comprising:

providing a cancer cell sample from the subject, the cancer cell sample including a population of bulk cancer cells and a population of cancer stem-like cells;

culturing a first portion of the cancer cell sample in a hydrodynamic focusing bioreactor under microgravity conditions and for a period of time sufficient to selectively increase the number of cancer stem-like cells and selectively kill the population of bulk cancer cells;

contacting the cancer stem-like cells with one or more chemotherapeutic agents;

detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic or not to the cancer stem-like cells;

identifying the one or more chemotherapeutic agents for treating the cancer if there is an increase in an amount of cytotoxicity; and

administering the one or more selected chemotherapeutic agents to the subject.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising the step of identifying a type of bulk cancer cell present in the cancer cell sample such that the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are further selected based on the type of bulk cancer cell present in the cancer cell sample.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising the steps of:

culturing a second portion of the cancer cell sample under conditions and for a period of time sufficient to enhance the bulk cancer cells;

contacting the bulk cancer cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents; and

detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic or not to the bulk cancer cells;

wherein the one or more chemotherapeutic agents administered to the subject are cytotoxic to both the cancer stem-like cells and the bulk cancer cells.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein culturing the first portion of the cancer cell sample comprises inoculating about 1×10 6 cells.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein culturing the second portion of the cancer cell sample comprises inoculating about 1×10 6 cells.

23. The method of claim 18 , further comprising immunophenotyping the cancer cell sample to identify a type of cancer cell in the cancer cell sample.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the step of immunophenotyping the cancer cell sample is performed by flow cytometry using one or more antibodies against the cancer stem-like cells.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the one or more antibodies are against CD24, CD34, CD38, CD44, CD133, CXCR4, OCT3/4, Nanog, or combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 18 , wherein the step of contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents for a time period of about one hour.

27. The method of claim 18 , wherein the step of detecting whether the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic to the cancer stem-like cells comprises calculating a percentage of non-viable cancer stem-like cells.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein the percentage of non-viable cancer stem-like cells is calculated using an assay selected from the group consisting of an MTT assay, a ALAMARBLUE assay and a WST-8 assay.

29. The method of claim 18 , wherein the cancer cell sample comprises a solid cancer cell sample, a liquid cancer cell sample, or combinations thereof.

30. The method of claim 29 , wherein the solid cancer cell sample comprises a lung cancer cell sample, a breast cancer cell sample, a central nervous system cancer cell sample, a colon cancer cell sample, a lymph node cancer cell sample, or combinations thereof.

31. The method of claim 29 , where the liquid cancer cell sample comprises a leukemia cell sample, a lymphoma cell sample, or a myeloma cell sample.

32. The method of claim 18 , wherein the one or more chemotherapeutic agents are selected from the group consisting of cisplatin, oxaliplatin, arabinoside-C, VP-16, busulfan, methotrexate, CPT-11, temozolomide, and combinations thereof.

33. The method of claim 18 , wherein the cancer cell sample is an ependymoma cell sample.

34. The method of claim 18 , wherein the step of contacting the cancer stem-like cells with the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises contacting the cancer stem-like cells with a predetermined concentration of the one or more chemotherapeutic agents; and

wherein the predetermined concentration of the one or more chemotherapeutic agents comprises a concentration below a clinically relevant dosage, equal to the clinically relevant dosage, or above the clinically relevant dosage.

35. A method of identifying a compound useful for treating a cancer, comprising:

providing a cancer cell sample including a population of bulk cancer cells and a population of cancer stem-like cells;

culturing the cancer cell sample in a hydrodynamic focusing bioreactor under microgravity conditions and for a period of time sufficient to selectively increase the number of cancer stem-like cells;

contacting the population of cancer stem-like cells with an effective amount of a test compound;

detecting whether the test compound is cytotoxic to the cancer stem-like cells or not; and

identifying the test compound as a compound useful for treating cancer if there is an increase in cytotoxicity.

36. The method of claim 1 , further comprises identifying the one or more chemotherapeutic agents as having an effect on the cancer cell sample if there is an increase in an amount of cytotoxicity of the cancer stem-like cells.

37. The method of claim 1 , wherein culturing a first population of the cancer cell sample selectivity kills the population of bulk cancer cells.