The chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane as a model for tumor biology

•The chick embryo CAM is a model for tumor biology and metastasis.•Being naturally immunodeficient, the chick embryo may receive transplantations from different tissues and species.•Compared with mammals models, tumor growth in the CAM is faster.•In contrast to standard mouse models most cancer cells complete extravasation within 24 h after injections in the CAM.

Among the in vivo models, the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) has been used to implant several tumor types as well as malignant cell lines to study their growth rate, angiogenic potential and metastatic capability. This review article is focused on the major compelling literature data on the use of the CAM to investigate tumor growth and the metastatic process.