EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinomas from patients who progressed on EGFR-inhibitors show high engraftment rates in xenograft models.

•PDX are useful for biological studies in cancer; engraftment may not be stochastic.•The overall engraftment rate of EGFR-PDX from lung adenocarcinoma is low.•Latency of EGFR-PDX generation render the models inadequate for avatar experiments.•Sample selection for EGFR-PDX experiments should target specific clinical scenarios.•Engraftment of metastases (100%) or after failure to EGFR-inhibitors (70%) is high.