The roles of patient-derived xenograft models and artificial intelligence toward precision medicine

Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) involve transplanting patient cells or tissues into immunodeficient mice, offering superior disease models compared with cell line xenografts and genetically engineered mice. In contrast to traditional cell-line xenografts and genetically engineered mice, PDX models harbor the molecular and biologic features from the original patient tumor and are generationally stable. This high fidelity makes PDX models particularly suitable for preclinical and coclinical drug testing, therefore better predicting therapeutic efficacy. Although PDX models are becoming more useful, the several factors influencing their reliability and predictive power are not well understood. Several existing studies have looked into the possibility that PDX models could be important in enhancing our knowledge with regard to tumor genetics, biomarker discovery, and personalized medicine; however, a number of problems still need to be addressed, such as the high cost and time-consuming processes involved, together with the variability in tumor take rates. This review addresses these gaps by detailing the methodologies to generate PDX models, their application in cancer research, and their advantages over other models. Further, it elaborates on how artificial intelligence and machine learning were incorporated into PDX studies to fast-track therapeutic evaluation. This review is an overview of the progress that has been done so far in using PDX models for cancer research and shows their potential to be further improved in improving our understanding of oncogenesis. The PDX models revolutionize clinical research. PDX models, obtained from patient-derived cells, are one of the latest tools in translational medicine and represent very close models of human tumor biology. This can be combined with the PDX model through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D/4D bioprinting, and organ-on-a-chip systems to rapidly accelerate therapeutic evaluation. AI and ML improve in silico predictive analytics by identification of effective drug responses, while 3D/4D bioprinting and organ-on-a-chip platforms provide sophisticated dynamic microenvironments that very closely recapitulate human physiology. Convergence of these technologies dramatically accelerates the development of personalized treatments, ensuring more precise and effective therapeutic interventions (Created using BioRender). image