Application of patient-derived tumor models in anticancer drug development and individualized medicine

Malignant tumor is the second leading cause of death due to its high incidence, lack of effective treatment and poor prognosis. The evaluation of anticancer drugs used to based on NCI-60 cell line models, but the limited heterogeneity and the divorce from clinical practice of models lead to extremely low success rate of novel anticancer drugs during clinical trials (less than 10%). In recent years, because of the high heterogeneity and human derived tumor matrix, patient-derived tumor models have been gradually applied to the preclinical evaluation of various antitumor drugs, which shows certain advantages in predicting the clinical efficacy of antitumor drugs. Optimize the drug combination through patient-derived tumor models to achieve individualized medicine has gradually become an indispensable strategy in clinical cancer therapy. The current review summarized the development of patient-derived tumor models, characterized the application, advantages and challenges of them in preclinical antitumor drug evaluation and clinical precise medicine, which will provide a scientific basis and novel insights for further basic research, drug development and clinical application.