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Table 1 Characteristics of common preclinical models of PDAC

From: Preclinical models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: challenges and opportunities in the era of precision medicine

 

Cell lines

Organoids

PDX

GEMM

Intertumoral heterogeneity

Between tumor cell lines (database available)

Between sampled cases

Between sampled cases

–

Intratumoral heterogeneity

–

Depend on sampling region

Depend on sampling region

+++

Tumor-stroma interaction

+ (Co-culture)

++ (Co-culture)

++

+++

Consistency during passages

+

++

+++

+++

Expansion

+++

+++

++

+

Genetic manipulation

+++

+++

+ (Before transplantation)

++

High throughput screening

+++

+ (Costly)

+ (Costly)

–

Success rate of initiation

++

++

++

+++

Cost

$

$$

$$

$$$

Time

1 month or less

1–2 months

More than 6 months

More than 6 months

Other strengths

Standardized across laboratories

Cultured from diverse cells or tissue

Mirror patient response to targeted therapy

Model all stages of tumor progression

Other weaknesses

Finite number of widely-available cell lines

Lack high quality clinical trials

Lack infiltrating immune cells, Loss of original stroma, Only represent resectable lesion

Mouse genomic background different from human

  1. PDX patient-derived xenograft, GEMM genetically engineered mouse model
  2. +++ denotes good; ++, medium; +, limited; −, not suitable