A historical perspective of pancreatic cancer mouse models

Pancreatic cancer is an inherently aggressive disease with an extremely poor prognosis and lack of effective treatments. Over the past few decades, much has been uncovered regarding the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer and the underlying genetic alterations necessary for tumour initiation and progression. Much of what we know about pancreatic cancer has come from mouse models of this disease. This review focusses on the development of genetically engineered mouse models that phenotypically and genetically recapitulate human pancreatic cancer, as well as the increasing use of patient-derived xenografts for preclinical studies and the development of personalised medicine strategies.