Breast Cancer Research

official impact factor 5.79

Commentary

Models of breast cancer: is merging human and animal models the future?

Jong B Kim1*, Michael J O'Hare1 and Robert Stein2

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Surgery, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research/University College London Breast Cancer Laboratory, Royal Free and University College London Medical School, London, UK

2 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, UK

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Breast Cancer Res 2004, 6:22-30 doi:10.1186/bcr645

Published: 19 August 2003

Abstract

Survival rates of patients with early breast cancer in the United Kingdom and in the United States have improved steadily over the past 15 years. The only way to continue or even accelerate this progress, however, is the discovery and development of new preventative and therapeutic strategies. With the massive explosion in potential therapeutic strategies becoming available, in the postgenomic era, better and more representative breast cancer models are urgently required for preclinical trials. Development of better in vivo models of human breast cancer are thus of crucial importance in the development of new cancer therapeutics.

Keywords:
breast cancer; immunodeficient mice; in vivo; stroma; xenograft