The establishment and validation of preclinical models that faithfully recapitulate
the pathogenesis and treatment response of human colorectal cancer (CRC) is critical
to expedient therapeutic advances in the clinical management of this disease. Integral
to the application of precision medicine for patients diagnosed with metastatic CRC
is the need to understand the molecular determinants of response for a given therapy.
Preclinical models of CRC have proven invaluable in answering many of our basic questions
relating to the molecular aberrations that drive colorectal tumor progression. This
review will address the comparative merits and limitations of the broad spectrum of
in vitro and in vivo models available for study of colorectal tumors and their response
to experimental therapies.
Keywords
organoid - xenograft - genetically engineered mouse model
