Champions Oncology has added new cohorts of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models to its TumorBank, expanding the company’s product line in castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and other ailments.

The new PDX models will support drug development in oncology programs and in translational industry and academic research.

CRPC is a type of prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone (ADT) therapy and is continuing to progress. Besides CRPC, the models will be available for hepatocellular cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With this addition, Champions’ TumorBank grows to more than 900 clinically relevant PDX models — 160 of them added in the past six months alone.

“Champions continues to invest in building new models that reflect the evolving standard of care to provide robust model cohorts for pre-clinical research and clinical trial simulation, Angela Davies, Champions’ chief medical officer, said in a press release. She added that the New Jersey-based company’s clinical operations “not only allow for new PDX model-building” but also aim to translate the results of early-phase clinical trials into practical techniques and tools for treating diseases.

Champions bases its technology on the clinical implementation of primary human tumors in immune-deficient mice. It then propagates the resulting engraftments in a way that preserves the original human tumor’s  biological characteristics, allowing physicians to better evaluate specific treatments.

“By making these models commercially available for translational studies at Champions, researchers and pharmaceutical companies will now have access to exclusive animal models integral to drug development research that have been generally inaccessible in the past,” said the company’s CEO, Ronnie Morris, MD.