Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 7, 2020; 26(13): 1394-1426
Published online Apr 7, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i13.1394
Mouse models of colorectal cancer: Past, present and future perspectives
Florian Bürtin, Christina S Mullins, Michael Linnebacher
Florian Bürtin, Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center Rostock, University of Rostock, Rostock 18057, Germany
Christina S Mullins, Department of Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Center Rostock, University of Rostock, Rostock 18057, Germany
Michael Linnebacher, Molecular Oncology and Immunotherapy, Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center Rostock, Rostock 18057, Germany
Author contributions: Linnebacher M was the main author involved in conception of the review including topics and angles addressed; Bürtin F performed the extensive PubMed search and drafted a first version; Mullins CS was the main author involved in manuscript editing including language editing; all authors participated in drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content; and all authors gave their final approval of the submitted and revised version.
Supported by the State Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, No. TBI-V-1-241-VBW-084.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Linnebacher reports grants from Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Gesundheit Mecklenburg-Vorpommern during the conduct of the study.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Michael Linnebacher, PhD, Academic Fellow, Research Fellow, Research Scientist, Senior Researcher, Senior Scientist, Molecular Oncology and Immunotherapy, Department of General, Visceral, Vascular and Transplantation Surgery, University Medical Center Rostock, Schillingallee 69, Rostock 18057, Germany. michael.linnebacher@med.uni-rostock.de
Received: December 18, 2019
Peer-review started: December 18, 2019
First decision: February 18, 2020
Revised: March 5, 2020
Accepted: March 10, 2020
Article in press: March 10, 2020
Published online: April 7, 2020
Processing time: 111 Days and 1.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: This review highlights the different approaches to model colorectal cancer in the mouse. Carcinogen-induced rodent models, genetically engineered mouse models, heterotopic and orthotopic models as well as patient-derived xenografts are discussed with an emphasis on their specific advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the historical background of animal models for cancer research and the future perspectives of colorectal cancer research are reviewed as well.