Animal models for elucidating human disease: Confronting cancer and other chronic diseases

The incidence of chronic diseases is increasing, despite advances in clinical medicine. Human diseases are often difficult to decipher because of the complexity of genetics and lifestyles. As such, appropriate biomedical models are essential, since most medical knowledge, treatment regimes, and the development of medical devices that have contributed to clinical advancement are based on robust animal models. Animal models are essential tools for studying gene-gene interactions, gene-environment effects, and for preclinical testing of therapeutic interventions. Given that mice, the most common animal model, frequently do not faithfully recapitulate human diseases, pigs and other large mammals, such as the dog, will continue to serve as important biomedical models. This review discusses animal models used for understanding human diseases and highlights the advantages and disadvantages for each.