Patient-derived tumor models for human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common head and neck tumors in Southern China. At present, the interaction of genetic susceptibility, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and environmental factors has been considered to be the main cause of NPC. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis have not been fully understood. The effective therapeutic drugs targeting NPC are still being developed and discovered. NPC cell lines and normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines were frequently used by researchers, but not represent the complex situation in vivo. Establishing an ideal animal model of NPC is one of the keys to solving the above problems. Here, we introduce the development of in vitro and in vivo models of NPC.