Reconstructing skin cancers using animal models

The American Cancer Society estimates that skin cancer is the most prevalent of all cancers with over 2 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer each year and 75,000 melanoma cases in 2012. Representative animal cancer models are important for understanding the underlying molecular pathogenesis of these cancers and the development of novel targeted anticancer therapeutics. In this review, we will discuss some of the important animal models that have been useful to identify important pathways involved in basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.