Fig. 2
From: Current status and perspectives of patient-derived xenograft models in cancer research
Use of PDX models in drug screening and preclinical therapeutic evaluation. Drug screening: PDX models can be used to expand tumors derived patients without adequate initial tumors for in vitro studies. The expanded tumor cells can be cultured and manipulated ex vivo and used for high-throughput screening of drugs or combinations. Identified candidate drugs and combinations can be further evaluated in PDX mice before use in patients or directly used in patients if the drugs have been approved. Preclinical therapeutic evaluation: given different clinical therapeutic regimens are available for cancer patients, PDX models can be used to define the best for individual patients. Briefly, the PDX mice of one patient are randomly divided into certain groups and treated with different therapeutic regimens. Through tumor assessment, the best regimen can be identified