Development of biomaterials mimicking tumor and its microenvironment has recently emerged for the use of drug discovery, precision medicine, and cancer biology. These biomimetic models have developed by reconstituting tumor and stroma cells within the 3D extracellular matrix. The models are recently extended to recapitulate the in vivo tumor microenvironment, including biological, chemical, and mechanical conditions tailored for specific cancer type and its microenvironment. In spite of the recent emergence of various innovative engineered tumor models, many of these models are still early stage to be adapted for cancer research. In this article, we review the current status of biomaterials engineering for tumor models considering three main aspects—cellular engineering, matrix engineering, and engineering for microenvironmental conditions. Considering cancer-specific variability in these aspects, our discussion is focused on pancreatic cancer, specifically pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. In addition, we further discussed the current challenges and future opportunities to create reliable and relevant tumor models.

最近出现了模拟肿瘤及其微环境的生物材料的开发，用于药物发现、精准医学和癌症生物学。这些仿生模型是通过在 3D 细胞外基质内重建肿瘤和基质细胞而开发的。这些模型最近被扩展到重述体内肿瘤微环境，包括为特定癌症类型及其微环境量身定制的生物、化学和机械条件。尽管最近出现了各种创新的工程肿瘤模型，但其中许多模型仍处于早期阶段，可用于癌症研究。在本文中，我们从细胞工程、基质工程和微环境工程工程这三个主要方面回顾了肿瘤模型生物材料工程的现状。考虑到这些方面的癌症特异性变异性，我们的讨论集中在胰腺癌上，特别是胰腺导管腺癌。此外，我们进一步讨论了创建可靠且相关的肿瘤模型的当前挑战和未来机会。