AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL OF CARCINOMA CREATE D BY THE IMPLANTATION OF INTACT HUMAN TISSUE IN THE NUDE-MOUSE

In certain cases pleural adenocarcinoma can behave like a primary tumo ur of the pleura. If the origin of this type of tumour is not clearly established, the macroscopic aspect of the pleura explored by thoracos copy enables a distinction to be made between isolated disease of the parietal pleura and mixed disease of both the parietal and visceral pl eura. The object of this study was to evaluate the prognosis of tumour disease of the visceral pleura. Using a murine model (the nude mouse) of cancel of both visceral and parietal pleura induced by implanting histologically intact human carcinoma, we have compared the symptoms o f survival of the two groups of mice as well as the local and regional dissemination and metastases of the implanted tumour. The growth of t he tumour was suspected by the appearance of weight loss, signs of res piratory difficulty and/or cachexia. Autopsy examination allowed a mea sure of the size of tumour dissemination. A pleural cancer, histologic ally identical to the initial human tumour with invasion of the neighb ouring structures as one sees in man, was obtained in all the implants . Never-theless, contralateral mediastinal lymph node metastases were only found in mice with implants on the visceral pleura. The median su rvival was 27.9 days and 31 days respectively for implanted mice on th e visceral pleura and on the parietal pleura. Mice with implants on th e visceral pleural lost more weight than those implanted on rite parie tal pleura (p<0.001). The results of this study show that the models o f parietal pleura and visceral pleura each correspond to an early stag e disease and to a stage of advanced disease. In addition, the implant ation of histologically intact tissue enables a model to be created of pleural cancer which reproduces the human disease. Its use to study t he biology, and the pathophysiology of pleural cancer and to carry out therapeutic trials is possible.