An avian embryo patient-derived xenograft model for preclinical studies of human breast cancers

Abstract

Lack of preclinical patient-derived xenograft cancer models in which to conduct large-scale molecular studies seriously impairs the development of effective personalized therapies. We report here an <i>in vivo</i> concept consisting of implanting human tumor cells in targeted tissues of an avian embryo, delivering therapeutics, evaluating their efficacy by measuring tumors using light sheet confocal microscopy, and conducting large-scale RNA-seq analysis to characterize therapeutic-induced changes in gene expression. The model was established to recapitulate triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and validated using TNBC standards of care and an investigational therapeutic agent.