Requirements for an idealized animal model of prostatic cancer.

Numerous contributions to our understanding of the human prostate have been obtained from previous animal studies. The use of newly available animal models of prostatic adenocarcinoma described in this paper should provide the means for further developing new concepts that can be tested in the human disease. In so doing, each animal model must first be characterized and demonstrated as being an appropriate model for a particular form of the human tumor. In this regard this review has discussed several important considerations.