Patient-Derived Models (PDM)

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