Abstract

Cancer is the cumulative symptomatology of a cluster of illnesses that affect several systems and are connected to one another. For the better part of the last few decades, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has served as a model for researchers looking at human cancers, and they have had a great deal of success doing so. Drosophila is advantageous over other model systems in that it is genetically straightforward and provides researchers with access to a wide variety of genetic analysis tools. As a result, it provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity to address concerns about the beginning and progression of cancer, which would be extremely challenging to do using other model systems. In this chapter, we provide a historical overview of Drosophila as a model organism for cancer research, summarize the wide variety of genetic tools available, and compare various model organisms and cell culture platforms used in cancer studies. In addition, we briefly discuss some of the most cutting-edge models and concepts in recent Drosophila cancer research.