Challenging the status quo to improve the translational potential of preclinical oncology studies

The precision medicine era has precipitated inherent new challenges to the preclinical tumour biology field. Overall, continued poor clinical translatability of preclinical studies highlights the need to disrupt the status quo. Well-characterized models, ideally established in the orthotopic setting and, where feasible, treated with classical standard-of-care regimens, are mandated. In this Comment, Connor et al. discuss how the continued poor clinical translatability of preclinical studies highlights the need to mandate well-characterized models, ideally established in the orthotopic setting and, where feasible, treated with classical standard-of-care regimens.