Xenograft and PDX Oncology Models

Xenograft models are fundamental systems in oncology research for the study of human tumors in model organisms and are used to better understand tumor biology, to test the efficacy of new anticancer drugs, and to study the treatment resistance.

The ability of these models to mimic human disease and to test new treatments makes them essential for the advancement of personalized medicine and the development of new anticancer drugs.

Xenograft models are obtained by implanting human tumor cells or tumor tissue directly into a non-human model organism (often immunodeficient mice) and can be classified into two main types:

• Cell Line-Derived Xenograft (CDX): generated by inoculating, subcutaneously or into the tumor organ of origin, tumor cells cultured in vitro, derived from commercial cell lines, stabilized or primary (derived directly from the patient's tumor).

• Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX): In this case, tumor tissue is taken directly from a patient and implanted into the mouse, subcutaneously or at the site of the primary tumor, keeping many of the characteristics of the original tumor, including cellular heterogeneity, microarchitecture, tumor microenvironment, and drug responses.

The Test Facility gives third-party institutions (pharmaceutical companies, universities, etc.) the possibility of performing in vivo oncological studies that involve the use of xenograft or PDX models in all their phases, through the collaboration of the different units of the facility:

-The SPF animal facility gives the possibility of safely hosting strains of immunodeficient mice necessary for the development of in vivo tumor models and has in vivo imaging tools that allow to monitor the tumor growth and the drug efficacy without sacrificing the animals;

-The cell culture laboratory gives the possibility of re-deriving tumor cell populations directly from the patient's mass and modifying them in order to make them visible (fluorescent or bioluminescent) to in vivo imaging tools;

-The haemato-biochemistry and Histology, molecular biology, and bioanalytics laboratories give the possibility of performing biochemical, histological, and molecular analyses on samples obtained from studies on oncological models.