title: Subrenal capsule grafting technology in human cancer modeling and translational cancer research.
abstract: Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) cancer models with high fidelity are in great demand. While the majority of PDXs are grafted under the skin of immunodeficient mice, the Living Tumor Laboratory (LTL), using unique subrenal capsule grafting techniques, has successfully established more than 200 transplantable PDX models of various low to high grade human cancers. The LTL PDX models retain key biological properties of the original malignancies, including histopathological and molecular characteristics, tumor heterogeneity, metastatic ability, and response to treatment. The PDXs are stored frozen at early transplant generations in a resurrectable form, which eliminates continuous passaging in mice, thus ensuring maintenance of the high biologic and molecular fidelity and reproducibility of the models. The PDX models have been demonstrated to be powerful tools for (i) studies of cancer progression, metastasis and drug resistance, (ii) evidenced-based precision cancer therapy, (iii) preclinical drug efficacy testing and discovery of new anti-cancer drug candidates. To better provide resources for the research community, an LTL website (www.livingtumorlab.com) has been designed as a publicly accessible database which allows researchers to identify PDX models suitable for translational/preclinical cancer research. In summary, subrenal capsule grafting technology maximizes both tumor engraftment rate and retention of human cancer heterogeneity. Moreover, the method makes possible the recovery of PDXs from frozen stocks for further applications, thus providing a powerful platform for translational cancer research.
authors.affiliation: The Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Urologic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Experimental Therapeutics, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: ywang@bccrc.ca.
authors.forename: Yuzhuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: joyw16@yorkhouse.ca.
authors.forename: Joy X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Experimental Therapeutics, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: hxue@bccrc.ca.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: The Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Experimental Therapeutics, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: dlin@bccrc.ca.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: The Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Experimental Therapeutics, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: xdong@bccrc.ca.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Therapeutics, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: pgout@bccrc.ca.
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Gout
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, China. Electronic address: gaoxin44@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, China. Electronic address: pangjun530@sina.com.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
keywords: Cancer research; Patient-derived xenografts; Prostate cancer; Subrenal capsule grafting