Heterotransplantation of human cancers into nude mice: a model system for human cancer chemotherapy.

More than 200 human cancers have been successfully transplanted into nude athymic mice in our laboratory. Strict sterile techniques must be applied in caring for these animals and meticulous attention given to the preparation of the surgical specimens. That the tumors remain human in the mice has been documented by isozyme and karyotype analyses. Also, histopathologic comparisons between the original human tumors and their transplanted counterparts in the mice are strikingly similar or identical. Preliminary results of chemotherapy of human cancers in the nude mice are extremely encouraging. At this point, we believe that the greatest potential for the nude mice lies in their use in testing anticancer therapies for human neoplasms without placing the patients at risk.