Characterization of a large panel of patient-derived hepatocellular carcinoma xenograft tumor models for preclinical development

We have generated a collection of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumor models and characterized them at the molecular level to facilitate precision oncology. Surgically resected HCC specimens were subcutaneously implanted in immunodeficient mice. Resulting xenografts were serially implanted to establish transplantable PDX models, which were sequentially subject to whole exome sequencing (WES), gene expression array, genome-wide human single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array 6.0, and serum a–fetoprotein (AFP) detection assay. The feasibility as a preclinical model was validated by efficacy studies using a standard-of-care (SOC) and a targeted agent, respectively.