Oncology research in humans is limited to analytical and observational studies for obvious ethical reasons, with therapy-focused clinical trials being the one exception to this rule. Preclinical mouse tumour models therefore serve as an indispensable intermediate experimental model system bridging more reductionist in vitro research with human studies. Based on a systematic survey of preclinical mouse tumour studies published in eight scientific journals in 2016, this Analysis provides an overview of how contemporary preclinical mouse tumour biology research is pursued. It thereby identifies some of the most important challenges in this field and discusses potential ways in which preclinical mouse tumour models could be improved for better relevance, reproducibility and translatability.

出于明显的伦理原因，人类的肿瘤学研究仅限于分析和观察性研究，而针对治疗的临床试验是该规则的一个例外。因此，临床前小鼠肿瘤模型是必不可少的中间实验模型系统，将更多的还原论者体外研究与人类研究联系起来。基于2016年在八种科学期刊上发表的临床前小鼠肿瘤研究的系统调查，此分析概述了如何进行当代临床前小鼠肿瘤生物学研究。因此，它确定了该领域中一些最重要的挑战，并讨论了可以改进临床前小鼠肿瘤模型以获得更好的相关性，可再现性和可翻译性的潜在方式。