Boston Builds Better Mouse Model for Metastatic Cancer

Biologists at Boston College have developed a more effective mouse model for studying how cancer spreads through the human body.

Boston’s team developed two cell lines which express all the major biological characteristics of human metastatic cancer only three weeks after being injected into healthy laboratory mice. In typical mouse models, researchers must transplant cancer cells into animals with disabled immune systems or wait several months before cancer can be detected – sometimes waiting weeks to study a cancer that never develops.

Metastasis, the spread of cancer from the primary site to other organs and tissues in the body, is the primary cause of cancer patient death. Because animal models fail to consistently reproduce human metastases, cancer researchers often have to test new treatments on human patients.

But Boston’s team reports two of the three cell lines they created successfully generated tumors in 100% of the mice injected. (The third line grew rapidly, but failed to produce metastatic cancer.) These disease models have already helped Boston’s biologists find out more about macrophage properties of cancer cells and they’re predicted to help speed the pace of future studies as well. As the team’s project leader said,

“What we have developed is the first model in the mouse that replicates all of the hallmarks of metastatic cancer. Now, we have a tool that can be effective in identifying basic mechanisms and new therapies to treat the disease.”

Thomas Seyfried, PhD
Biologist, Boston College

If you’d like to learn more about the models, the scientists are publishing their findings in the online edition of the International Journal of Cancer Research. Findings will also be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research being held April 12-16, 2008, in San Diego, California.

Source: ScienceDaily

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Published by Lisa on Tuesday 15 April 2008 at 6:47 pm - permalink
Filed under Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, General Cancer Info

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Boston Builds Better Mouse Model for Metastatic Cancer

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