PROF. XIN GUO

Using Mice to Find Drugs against Human Lung Cancer: How Good is this Compass, Really?

Lung cancer is the most lethal type of cancer in US. Mice injected with human cancer cells either under the skin or into the lung most commonly guide the search for drugs against lung cancer. However, such mouse models have major differences from the real human lung cancer and drug candidates that show efficacy in such models have a high chance of failure in lung cancer patients.  This talk will present a new mice model of lung cancer, where human lung cancer cells are first grown into tumor-like clusters in culture and then injected into the mice lung. In contrast to many traditional lung cancer models, this new model can simulate all four clinical stages of lung cancer progression over one month: Stage 1) localized tumor, Stage 2) multiple tumor nodules or larger tumor nodule on the same side of the lung, Stage 3) cancer growth on heart surface, and Stage 4) metastasis on both sides of the lung. The new model enjoys high rates of animal survival (100%) and tumor establishment (88.9%). The morphology of the cancer cell clusters can be used to control the cancer progression.  This new mouse model would better guide the discovery of new drugs against lung cancer.