Molecular Characterization of Pancreatic Cancer Cell Lines

Abstract

A Relatively large number of very well characterized human pancreatic cancer cell lines is available for preclinical investigation. However, there is a perception that continuous passage in tissue culture coupled with genomic instability has made them poor models of human disease and that preclinical attempts to identify active therapeutic regimens that employed them as models have uniformly failed when they were translated into clinical trials. Here we will review the current status of some high profile studies employing cell lines to model human cancer biology and identify the potential strengths and weaknesses associated with the approach. We will also discuss results that challenge the notion that cell lines are poor models of human cancer biology.