Tissue engineering perfusable cancer models

• Role of fluid flow in cancer progression remains inadequately elucidated.
• Recapitulation of fluid dynamics requires both microfluidic and macroscale models.
• Microfluidic models enable oncology investigations at the single-cell level.
• Macroscale models can reproducibly mimic the hierarchical nature of tumorigenesis.

The effect of fluid flow on cancer progression is currently not well understood, highlighting the need for perfused tumor models to close this gap in knowledge. Enabling biological processes at the cellular level to be modeled with high spatiotemporal control, microfluidic tumor models have demonstrated applicability as platforms to study cell–cell interactions, effect of interstitial flow on tumor migration and the role of vascular barrier function. To account for the multi-scale nature of cancer growth and invasion, macroscale models are also necessary. The consideration of fluid dynamics within tumor models at both the microscopic and macroscopic levels may greatly improve our ability to more fully mimic the tumor microenvironment.