Assessment of Patient-Derived Xenograft Growth and Antitumor Activity: The NCI PDXNet Consensus Recommendations

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Preclinical Cancer Research
• Translational Medicine

Background:

• Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) are vital preclinical cancer models.
• A lack of standardized analysis hinders comparison and evaluation of PDX studies.
• Current methods for assessing tumor growth and therapeutic response in PDX models are inconsistent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish consensus recommendations for analyzing PDX tumor growth.
• To provide standardized methods for assessing antitumor activity in PDX models.
• To facilitate the identification of promising novel cancer therapies and biomarkers.

Main Methods:

• Development of consensus recommendations through expert collaboration.
• Creation of a suite of analytical tools for in vivo tumor growth analysis.
• Public accessibility of these tools for the research community.

Main Results:

• Harmonized approaches to PDX study design and data analysis.
• Standardized assessment of in vivo tumor growth and response to therapy.
• Enhanced comparability and reliability of PDX experimental outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Standardized PDX analysis improves the evaluation of preclinical cancer models.
• Consensus recommendations and tools facilitate the identification of effective cancer therapies.
• Improved information exchange from PDX studies aids biomarker discovery and clinical translation.