Present-Day Difficulties in Treating Cancer
Keywords:
Cancer, Genetic Heterogeneity, Rapid Mutations, Animal Models, Genetic Diversity, Immune System Interactions, Tumor Microenvironments, Heterogeneity, Chemoresistance, Drug Metabolism, Microenvironments, Patient-Derived Tumor Xenografts (PDTXS), Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMS).Abstract
Cancer is a complex disease, characterized by genetic heterogeneity, rapid mutations, and the ability to develop resistance to drugs, which compromises the effectiveness of therapeutic development. The limitations of animal models, particularly murine systems, are discussed in this paper. Although these models are the backbone of cancer research, they fail to replicate the complexities of human cancers, including genetic diversity, interactions between the immune system, and tumour microenvironments. These differences contribute to the high rate of failed preclinical findings being translated into successful clinical outcomes. Key issues are explored in detail, showing how they impact the reliability and relevance of study findings. These are tumour heterogeneity, chemoresistance, drug metabolism variation, and inadequacies of animal tumour microenvironments. Innovative techniques providing a more realistic picture of human diseases, such as organoids, genetically edited mice models (GEMs), and patient-derived tumour xenografts (PDTXs), are highlighted as promising alternatives. The review also encourages ethical progress and regulatory facilitation of non-animal approaches while emphasizing the importance of the integration of computational tools, artificial intelligence, and personalized preclinical models to enhance the predictability of research. By overcoming these challenges and using innovative approaches, this review demonstrates the potential to bridge the translational gap in cancer research, which would further increase the precision of preclinical models and accelerate the development of novel cancer treatments.
