title: Athymic nude mice as an experimental model for cancer treatment.
abstract: Athymic nude mice, a murine strain bearing spontaneous deletion in the Foxn1 gene that causes deteriorated or absent thymus (which results in inhibited immune system with reduction of number of T cells), represent a widely used model in cancer research having long lasting history as a tool for preclinical testing of drugs. The review describes three models of athymic mice that utilize cancer cell lines to induce tumors. In addition, various methods that can be applied in order to evaluate activity of anticancer agents in these models are shown and discussed. Although each model has certain disadvantages, they are still considered as inevitable instruments in many fields of cancer research, particularly in finding new drugs that would more effectively combat the cancer disease or enhance the use of current chemotherapy. Finally, the review summarizes strengths and weaknesses as well as future perspectives of the athymic nude mice model in cancer research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. babula@med.muni.cz.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Szadvari
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krizanova
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Babula
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents