title: A fresh look at zebrafish from the perspective of cancer research.
abstract: Zebrafish represent a vertebrate model organism that has been widely, and increasingly, employed over the last decade in the study of developmental processes, wound healing, microbe-host interactions, and drug screening. With the increase in the laboratory use of zebrafish, several advantages, such as a high genetic homology to humans and transparent embryos, which allow clear disease evaluation, have greatly widened its use as a model for studying tumor development in vivo. The use of zebrafish has been applied in several areas of cancer research, mainly in the following domains: (1) establishing cancer models by carcinogenic chemical, genetic technology, and xenotransplantation; (2) evaluating tumor angiogenesis; (3) studying tumor metastasis; and (4) anti-tumor drug screening and drug toxicity evaluation. In this study, we provide a comprehensive overview of the role of zebrafish in order to underline the advantages of using them as a model organism in cancer research. Several related successful events are also reviewed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical oncology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Drhuangjian@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. wzmcyejun@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D015027:Zebrafish