In vivo models of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive malignancy with high mortality rate. Within the next decade, PDAC is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-associated death in the United States. Understanding the pathophysiology of PDAC tumorigenesis and metastases is crucial toward developing new therapeutics. One of the challenges in cancer research is generating in vivo models that closely recapitulate the genomic, histological, and clinical characteristics of human tumors. An ideal model for PDAC not only captures the tumor and stromal environment of human disease, but also allows for mutational control and is easy to reproduce in terms of time and cost. In this review, we highlight evolution of in vivo models for PDAC including spontaneous tumors models (i.e., chemical induction, genetic modification, viral delivery), implantation models including patient derived xenografts (PDX), and humanized PDX. We discuss the implementation of each system and evaluate the benefits and shortcomings of these models. Overall, this review provides a broad overview of prior and current techniques of in vivo PDAC modeling and their associated challenges.