The PANC-1 Xenograft Model for Pancreatic Cancer

Test your pancreatic cancer therapeutics reliably and rapidly in a translatable pancreatic cancer model.

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy arising from the pancreas, often diagnosed late due to vague symptoms. It has poor prognosis, limited treatment options, frequent metastasis, and remains one of the deadliest cancers despite advances in surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

The PANC-1 xenograft mouse model is a valuable platform for evaluating potential therapeutics targeting pancreatic cancer, aiding in the advancement of treatment strategies and improving patient outcomes.

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A translatable pancreatic tumor model platform

The PANC-1 xenograft model is a widely used preclinical system for studying pancreatic cancer biology and therapeutic responses. PANC-1 is a human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell line, originally derived from a pancreatic carcinoma in a 56-year-old patient. When implanted into immunodeficient mice, typically either subcutaneously or orthotopically into the pancreas, these cells form tumors that recapitulate several features of human pancreatic cancer, including aggressive growth, stromal interactions, and relative resistance to therapy. The subcutaneous model offers easy monitoring of tumor volume, while the orthotopic model more closely mimics the tumor microenvironment and metastatic potential. PANC-1 xenografts are particularly valued for evaluating novel chemotherapies, targeted therapies, and combination regimens, as well as for studying tumor biology, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, and mechanisms of drug resistance. This model provides a reproducible and clinically relevant platform to advance translational research in pancreatic cancer.

Advantages of the PANC-1 Xenograft Model

  • Can be grown orthotopically to faithfully re-capitulate 3D environment
  • Most commonly used human pancreatic cell line.
  • Reflect clinical treatment challengeswith demonstrated chemotherapy resistance.

Customize your lung cancer research with our bespoke services

Our PANC-1 xenograft model can be prepared in 2 to 3 weeks, with results available after 2-3 months of treatment.

Contact us for more information on our additional and individualized services, including IVIS imaging, PK studies, and metabolic analyses.

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  • We chose Melior Discovery because they were responsive and cost effective.  We are staying with them as a chosen scientific partner because of their thoughtful scientific input to experimental design and attention to detail.  Their expertise and flexibility allowed us to quickly adapt the study design and evaluate additional outcome measures to pursue unexpected activity.

    Sridharan Rajamani, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist

    Gilead Sciences
  • I have been working with Melior on a number of projects over the course of a few years now.  They have been a great partner throughout this time.  The scientists whom I have worked with have been great problem-solvers and were customer focused.

    Jay Lichter

    Avalon Ventures
  • Melior provided State-of-the-art Preclinical Pharmacology Support for a period of nearly a year where a series of in vivo studies were completed on a weekly basis. The staff was extremely user-friendly and the operational processes were excellent. I can recommend Melior without reservation.

    Richard DiMarchi, PhD

    Cox Professor of Chemistry & Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences Indiana University, Department of Chemistry
  • Because Melior could do the orthotopic intracranial implants, we were able to do survival studies with brain tumor-bearing animals that were treated with our therapy, showing a beautiful survival with our agent versus control. Talk about something that gets your investors going! These beautiful survival curves with our agent versus control and visual photos are in all of our investor decks because… it's powerful.

    Bruce Ruggeri, Ph.D.

    Modifi Bio
  • Melior works in many therapeutic areas, like CNS, inflammatory disease, GI, cardiovascular, and oncology. I was very pleased that when it came to doing tumor studies, both subcutaneous and intracranial, they did them well. They reported on the studies on time and did the data analysis really well.

    Bruce Ruggeri, Ph.D.

    Modifi Bio
  • Their areas of expertise are extensive, and they are very experienced, responsive, and flexible in terms of how the study is run. Their pricing is reasonable, making them the best option for a young, not well-funded company like ours.

    Maxine Gowen

    Tamuro Bio
  • Melior’s team was very experienced and knowledgeable. They were always very open to suggestions and questions, spending a lot of time helping us feel comfortable with the study design. I would give them very high marks.

    Maxine Gowen

    Tamuro Bio
  • The most important factors in choosing to work with Melior were the fit between the tests they could run and our needs, as well as their tight budget and proximity. Melior was the best fit for our research goals.

    Ira Spector

    SFA Therapeutics

Human pancreatic cancer PANC-1 xenograft model. 10×106 PANC-1 cells were subcutaneously injected into the rear flank of NSG mice. Once the tumor size reached ~100mm3 (Day 14), mice were randomized into 3 groups (n=6 each): untreated control, paclitaxel (30 mg/kg, IP weekly) and cisplatin (3 mg/kg, IP weekly). Tumor volume was monitored 2x weekly using calipers (A). At the end of the study (Day 44), animals were sacrificed, tumors excised and weighted (B,C). Data are mean ± SEM; *** p<0.001.

Did you know the A549 xenograft model is complementary to our syngeneic LLC model?

Melior makes syngeneic lung cancer models that use mouse rather than human lung cancer cell lines opening up the possibility of immune therapy testing. Our Lewis Lung Cancer (LLC) syngeneic model complements the human A549 xenograft model, and both are models of NSCLC.

Want to know more? Speak to an expert

Related Services and Solutions

Grow your patient-derived tumor cells into 3D lung cancer models

Accurately predict the success of your targeted lung cancer therapeutics with custom patient cell-derived mouse xenografts. Explore patient-specific attributes and accelerate the development of high-impact therapeutics with custom in vivo models.

Learn more about patient-derived xenograft models

Interested in another cancer type?

We have cell line xenograft models for breast, colorectal, brain, kidney, liver, ovary, and prostate cancers.

Explore cancer cell line xenograft models

Complement your xenograft studies with syngeneic models

Expand your insights by complementing your xenograft model studies with our complementary syngeneic models!

Evaluate your immune therapies with our syngeneic models

Publications

Li, J., Di, Y., Jin, C., Fu, D., Yang, F., Jiang, Y., … & Ni, Q. (2013). Gemcitabine-loaded albumin nanospheres (GEM-ANPs) inhibit PANC-1 cells in vitro and in vivo. Nanoscale Research Letters, 8(1), 176.

Rak, R., Haklai, R., Elad-Tzfadia, G., Wolfson, H. J., Carmeli, S., & Kloog, Y. (2014). Novel LIMK2 inhibitor blocks Panc-1 tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model. Oncoscience, 1(1), 39.

Zheng, X., Cui, X. X., Huang, M. T., Liu, Y., Shih, W. J., Lin, Y., … & Conney, A. H. (2008). Inhibitory effect of voluntary running wheel exercise on the growth of human pancreatic Panc-1 and prostate PC-3 xenograft tumors in immunodeficient mice. Oncology reports, 19(6), 1583-1588.

Xiao, Z., Li, L., Li, Y., Zhou, W., Cheng, J., Liu, F., … & Che, Y. (2014). Rasfonin, a novel 2-pyrone derivative, induces ras-mutated Panc-1 pancreatic tumor cell death in nude mice. Cell Death & Disease, 5(5), e1241-e1241.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are PANC-1 cells in the PANC-1 xenograft model derived from?

PANC-1 cells were originally derived from a pancreatic carcinoma in a 56-year-old patient

What are the advantages of the PANC-1 xenograft model alternative pancreatic xenograft models?

The PANC-1 xenograft model is the most commonly used pancreatic xenograft model thereby allowing study results to more easily be compared to literature results.

How are the PANC-1 cells implanted in the mice?

Melior can either implant PANC-1 cell subcutaneously, allowing for relatively straight forward measurement of tumor volume, or implant cell orthotopically into the pancreas.  This has the advantage of provide a more natural tumor environment and tumor volume is measured using bioluminescent imaging.

Citations

Lieber, M., Mazzetta, J., Nelson-Rees, W. A., Kaplan, M., & Todaro, G. J. (1975). Establishment of a continuous tumor-cell line (PANC-1) from a human carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas. International Journal of Cancer, 15(5), 741–747. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.2910150505.

Deer, E. L., González-Hernández, J., Coursen, J. D., Shea, J. E., Ngatia, J., Scaife, C. L., Firpo, M. A., & Mulvihill, S. J. (2010). Phenotype and genotype of pancreatic cancer cell lines. Pancreas, 39(4), 425–435. https://doi.org/10.1097/MPA.0b013e3181c15963.

Kim, M. P., Evans, D. B., Wang, H., Abbruzzese, J. L., Fleming, J. B., & Gallick, G. E. (2009). Generation of orthotopic and heterotopic human pancreatic cancer xenografts in immunodeficient mice. Nature Protocols, 4(11), 1670–1680. https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2009.171.

Delitto, D., Judge, S. M., Delitto, A. E., Nosacka, R. L., Rocha, F. G., DiVita, B. B., Gerber, M. H., George, T. J., Behrns, K. E., Hughes, S. J., Wallet, S. M., Judge, A. R., & Trevino, J. G. (2016). Human pancreatic cancer xenografts recapitulate key aspects of cancer cachexia. Oncotarget, 8(1), 1177–1189. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.13593.

Garcia, P. L., Miller, A. L., & Yoon, K. J. (2020). Patient-derived xenograft models of pancreatic cancer: Overview and comparison with other types of models. Cancers, 12(5), 1327. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12051327.

American Type Culture Collection. (n.d.). PANC-1 (CRL-1469) [Cell line]. ATCC. Retrieved September 24, 2025, from https://www.atcc.org/products/crl-1469. https://www.atcc.org

Cellosaurus. (n.d.). PANC-1 (CVCL_0480). Retrieved September 24, 2025, from https://www.cellosaurus.org/CVCL_0480.