Have plastic culture models prevented the discovery of effective cancer therapeutics?

Conventional cell culture techniques generally fail to recapitulate the expression profiles or functional phenotypes of the in vivo equivalents they are meant to model. These cell culture models are indispensable for preclinical drug discovery and mechanistic studies. However, if our goal is to develop effective therapies that work as intended in the human body, we must revise our cell culture models to recapitulate normal and disease physiology to ensure that we identify compounds that are useful and effective beyond our in vitro models. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed issue Mechanopharmacology. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v183.4/issuetoc.