Preclinical Models of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Current Utility, Limitations, and Challenges

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant primary liver tumor, remains one of the most lethal cancers worldwide, despite the advances in therapy in recent years. In addition to the traditional chemically and dietary-induced HCC models, a broad spectrum of novel preclinical tools have been generated following the advent of transgenic, transposon, organoid, and in silico technologies to overcome this gloomy scenario. These models have become rapidly robust preclinical instruments to unravel the molecular pathogenesis of liver cancer and establish new therapeutic approaches against this deadly disease. The present review article aims to summarize and discuss the commonly used preclinical models for HCC, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.