Microengineered Breast Cancer Models: Shaping the Future of Personalized Oncology

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Background : Breast cancer remains the most prevalent malignancy in women worldwide, characterized by remarkable genetic, molecular, and clinical heterogeneity. Traditional preclinical models have significantly advanced our understanding of tumor biology, yet consistently fall short in recapitulating the complexity of the human tumor microenvironment (TME), immune, and metastatic behavior. In recent years, breast cancer-on-a-chip (BCOC) have emerged as powerful microengineered systems that integrate patient-derived cells, stromal and immune components, and physiological stimuli such as perfusion, hypoxia, and acidic milieu within controlled three-dimensional microenvironments. Aim : To comprehensively review the BCOC development and application, encompassing fabrication materials, biological modeling of key subtypes (DCIS, luminal A, triple-negative), dynamic tumor-stroma-immune crosstalk, and organotropic metastasis to bone, liver, brain, lungs, and lymph nodes. Methods : We selected papers from academic trusted databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar) by using Breast Cancer, Microfluidic System, and Breast Cancer on a Chip as the main search terms. Results : We critically discuss and highlight how microfluidic systems replicate essential features of disease progression-such as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, vascular invasion, immune evasion, and therapy resis

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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