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Modelomics to Investigate Cancer Bone Metastasis

  • Molecular Biology of Bone Metastasis (H Taipaleenmäki, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of review

Modelomics approach allows modelling and understanding of the mechanisms regulating living complex systems using computational and experimental models. Here, our aim was to highlight recent cancer models with the focus on bioengineering tool box to study bone metastasis cascade.

Recent findings

Bone is a common site for cancer metastasis. In the last few decades, various in vitro and in vivo models have been used to provide insights into the treatment of human cancer bone metastasis. Despite significant advances into the understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms of cancer bone metastasis using traditional models, recent studies reported the functional failure of the new drugs when tested in humans and demonstrated the inability of current bone metastasis models to mimic corresponding human disease. The failure of cancer treatments highlights the importance of reviewing the efficiency and efficacy of current modelomics to accurately investigate bone metastasis.

Summary

Development of innovative cancer bone metastasis models is an essential step to develop new therapies or investigate the feasibility of current treatments. The emergence of bone on chip, tissue engineering of humanized mouse models has the potential to overcome the limitation of current platforms by better recapitulation of the cancer bone metastasis.

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Acknowledgments

We apologize to colleagues whose works could not be cited due to space constraints.

Funding

The current project is supported by the NHMRC Project Grant 1082313, by the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF IN-15-047), and by a grant from Worldwide Cancer Research (WWCR 15-11563).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre in Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, 60 Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, Queensland, 4059, Australia

    Abbas Shafiee & Dietmar W. Hutmacher

  2. UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Abbas Shafiee

  3. ARC Training Centre In Additive Biomanufacturing, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Dietmar W. Hutmacher

  4. George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dietmar W. Hutmacher

Authors
  1. Abbas Shafiee
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  2. Dietmar W. Hutmacher
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Correspondence to Abbas Shafiee or Dietmar W. Hutmacher.

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Conflict of Interest

Abbas Shafiee and Dietmar W. Hutmacher declare no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Molecular Biology of Bone Metastasis

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Shafiee, A., Hutmacher, D.W. Modelomics to Investigate Cancer Bone Metastasis. Curr Mol Bio Rep 4, 88–100 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40610-018-0094-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40610-018-0094-x

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