From Human to Mouse and Back: 'Tumorgraft' Models Surge in Popularity

Abstract

Mouse xenograft models of cancer, understandably, have a terrible reputation. Although researchers and companies routinely use these human tumors in mice for preclinical drug testing, individual models poorly predict how drugs will act in the clinic. Retrospective re views published by the National Cancer Institute in 2001 and the National Cancer Institute of Canada in 2003 came to the same conclusion: Drugs that work against cancer in xenograft mice rarely work in people with the same tumor, with the exception of lung