[Research advances of animal models of retinoblastoma]

Advances in animal models of retinoblastoma have accelerated the research in understanding tumor biology and assessing therapeutic modalities. At present, there are two types of models:transgenic models and xenograft models. The transgenic models have experienced a developmental process from LH-β-Tag models to conditional gene knock-out models. The xenograft models included intraocular transplantation models and subcutaneous transplantation models. The two types of RB models both have their merits and drawbacks. The combination of genetic and xenograft models in retinoblastoma research has and will help to pave way for better understanding tumor progression and searching more effective diagnosis and treatment modalities. In this review, we summarized the recent research progress in animal models of retinoblastoma and their application in assessing therapeutic modalities.