5.17 Three-dimensional bioengineered cancer models

Cancer is an evolving, dynamic, evasive and heterogeneous disease, characterized by high morbidity and mortality. It is widely acknowledged that the tumor microenvironment plays a fundamental role in cancer development and progression. Despite this, most in vitro cancer models are simple, two-dimensional monocultures of immortalized tumor cell lines. There is an immediate need to develop three-dimensional, multicellular biomimetic in vitro constructs that can model specific stages of tumorigenesis to aid cancer research and drug discovery. This chapter aims to review the latest advances in three-dimensional bioengineered cancer modeling, with particular focus on models that retain the biological and physical characteristics of the in vivo tumor microenvironment.