title: Breaking through a roadblock in prostate cancer research: an update on human model systems.
abstract: Prostate cancer is a prevalent disease that affects the aging male population. Whilst there have been significant advances of our biological understanding of the disease, clinical translation of promising agents continues to lag behind. In part, this is due to a paucity of relevant experimental and pre-clinical models required to further develop effective prevention and therapeutic strategies. Genetically modified cell lines fail to entirely represent the genetic and molecular diversity of primary human specimens, particularly from localised disease. Furthermore, primary prostate cancer tissues are extremely difficult to grow in the laboratory and virtually all human models, whether they grow as xenografts in immune-deficient animals or as cell cultures, are genetically modified by the investigator or derived from patients with advanced metastatic disease. In this review, we discuss the latest advances and improvements to current methods of xenografting human primary prostate cancer, and their potential application to translational research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toivanen
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Pook
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Ellem
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Risbridger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D006727:Hormone Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000639:trends; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment / Q000187:drug effects; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D006727:Hormone Antagonists