An international team led by MIT's Koch Institute, the Broad Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute reported nearly 700 new cancer models derived from patient tumors, representing 25 cancer types and now available to researchers worldwide. The open-access paper appeared in Nature on August 5, 2026, with contributors from more than two dozen institutions.

The Human Cancer Models Initiative began in 2016, funded primarily by the National Cancer Institute and the UK's Wellcome Trust. More than 2,700 tumor samples were collected by hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands; about one-third were successfully converted, mostly into 3D organoids, including roughly 150 rare cancer types. Models were deposited at the American Type Culture Collection with accompanying patient data.

Companion Nature papers profiled more than 300 models with genomic and RNA sequencing, applied CRISPR screens to more than 100, and characterized an additional 256 organoids. The authors hope to extend the work to more pediatric and rare cancers as the formal project winds down. The findings are preclinical research tools, not clinical results.