Research progression in neural invasion model of pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor of the digestive system with occult onset, low early diagnosis rate, rapid progression and poor prognosis. Perineural invasion (PNI) of pancreatic cancer is considered as an important factor which leads to the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer. Neural invasion models of pancreatic cancer can simulate the occurrence and development of neural invasion of pancreatic cancer under the complex tumor microenvironment, which is an important carrier to study the molecular mechanism, early diagnosis and treatment improvement of PNI of pancreatic cancer. The current PNI model could be broadly divided into in vivo model and in vitro model, and in vivo model could further be divided into ectopic model and in situ model. Recently, based on the in vivo and in vitro models, genetically engineered mouse models and patient-derived xenograft models have been applied. Here, the preparation methods, clinical uses and limitations of the commonly used neural invasion in vitro and in vivo models of pancreatic cancer are reviewed.