Fig. 1.

Characteristics of PDAC tissue and patient-derived model. (A) PDAC exhibits low tumor cellularity surrounded by plenty of non-cancerous normal cell components. Also, PDAC is characterized by high tumor heterogeneity due to complex TME and diverse cancer cell clones with genetic alterations. (B) Representative PDAC patient-derived model systems are cell line, PDX, and organoid. Cell line is the most basic and easiest to handle. PDX has the advantage of being able to perform various in vivo tests, and organoid is a model that supplements disadvantages of 2D culture in cell lines. Model systems have biased proportions of PDAC molecular subtypes.