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Patient-Derived Models (PDM)

Green background with circles radiating and fading from the right. White text on the left that states, “provides early-passage, molecularly characterized, and clinically annotated patient- derived xenograft models to the scientific community.”

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has established a repository of Patient-Derived Models (PDMs) developed from human tumor tissues and blood that are made available upon request to serve as a resource for public-private partnerships and for academic cancer drug discovery efforts. 

These established, quality-controlled PDMs are clinically-annotated with molecular information available in an easily accessible database. The models types include:

  • patient-derived xenografts (PDXs)
  • patient-derived in vitro tumor cell cultures (PDCs)
  • patient-derived organoids (PDOrg)
  • cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs)

This effort began in April 2012 when the NCI hosted a Target Validation Meeting with academia and pharma participants to discuss the current state of preclinical models in cancer research. Subsequent discussions identified the following needs:

  • Improved reproducibility and transparency of preclinical data to determine if the use of animal models for guiding preclinical development of anti-cancer agents  
  • Clarification of the role of PDXs in target identification and qualification
  • Development of models to enable the comparative assessment of molecular predictors of drug efficacy: PDXs, genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs), conventional xenografts, conditionally-reprogrammed lines, organoids, etc.
  • Establishment of predictive genomic signatures and/or proof of mechanism pharmacodynamics

Accessing the Repository

Learn how to request PDMs

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