Patient-derived cancer models (PDCMs) have become an essential tool in both cancer research and preclinical studies. Each model type offers unique advantages and is better suited for specific research areas: cell lines are low cost and allow high throughput assays, organoids model the impact of intratumour heterogeneity, tumour evolution, and drug response, and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) retain the tumour architecture to better predict patient response to treatment. Seamless access to PDCMs is, however, hindered by the lack of shared data standards. As such, PDCMs stakeholders - i.e., researchers, clinicians, bioinformaticians and analytical tool developers - are faced with the challenge to navigate a complex and siloed landscape across multiple commercial and academic resources.

CancerModels.Org is a new cancer research platform that aggregates clinical, genomic, and functional data from PDXs, organoids and cell lines. The platform addresses the needs of the stakeholders by standardising, harmonising, and integrating the complex and diverse data associated with patient-derived cancer models. Its foundation is underpinned by our efforts to develop and promote the use of descriptive standards (e.g., PDX-MI, PMID: 29092942) to facilitate data interoperability and global sharing of models. Further value is provided by enriching the models and data with concepts from well-established terminologies (e.g. NCI Thesaurus) and links to external resources, such as, publication platforms, raw data archives and cancer specific annotation tools enabling exploration and prioritisation of cancer model variation data. CancerModels.Org is freely available under an Apache 2.0 license (https://github.com/PDCMFinder).