Brain tumor animal models: importance and progress.

Recent experiments indicate that some of the genetic abnormalities found in human brain tumors can induce tumors in mice with similar histologic characteristics to their human counterparts. Such studies help unravel the biology of tumorigenesis and indicate that some of the mutations and alterations in gene expression found in human central nervous system tumors may actually contribute to the etiology of these diseases. In addition, these mouse-modeling experiments may identify essential targets for therapy and provide test animals for preclinical trials of mechanistically designed therapeutics.