title: The future of patient-derived tumor xenografts in cancer treatment.
abstract: Over the last decades, major technological advancements have led to a better understanding of the molecular drivers of human malignancies. Nonetheless, this progress only marginally impacted the cancer therapeutic approach, probably due to the limited ability of experimental models to predict efficacy in clinical trials. In an effort to offset this limitation, there has been an increasing interest in the development of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models where human tumors are xenotransplanted into immunocompromised mice. Considering their high resemblance to human tumors and their stability, PDX models are becoming the preferred translational tools in preclinical studies. Nonetheless, several limitations hamper a wider use of PDX models and tarnish the concept that they might represent the missing piece in the personalized medicine puzzle.
authors.affiliation: Barcelona-Clínic Liver Cancer Group, HCC Translational Research Laboratory, Liver Unit, Hepato-biliary Surgery, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Hospital Clínic, CIBERehd, Universitat de Barcelona, C/Rossello 153, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Gastrointestinal Surgery & Liver Transplantation Unit, Department of Surgery, National Cancer Institute, via Venezian, 1, Milan, Italy.|Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sia
authors.affiliation: Barcelona-Clínic Liver Cancer Group, HCC Translational Research Laboratory, Liver Unit, Hepato-biliary Surgery, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Hospital Clínic, CIBERehd, Universitat de Barcelona, C/Rossello 153, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Agrin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moeini
authors.affiliation: Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue NY 10029, USA.
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Labgaa
authors.affiliation: Liver Cancer Program, Division of Liver Diseases, Department of Medicine, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue NY 10029, USA.|Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1425 Madison Avenue, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Augusto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villanueva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D064593:Heterografts; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D057285:Precision Medicine; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: avatar; biomarkers; co-clinical trials; mouse models; personalized medicine