METASTATIC HUMAN PLEURAL OVARIAN-CANCER MODEL CONSTRUCTED BY ORTHOTOPIC IMPLANTATION OF FRESH HISTOLOGICALLY-INTACT PATIENT CARCINOMA IN NUDE-MICE

Pleural cancer is a frequently-occurring tumor that is generally refra ctory to therapy. Clinically-relevant animal models of human pleural c ancer are greatly needed for testing experimental and standard treatme nts, as well as for understanding the clinical features of this diseas e. We report the first orthotopic transplant model for human patient p leural cancer. Fresh histologically-intact patient specimens of human pleural ovarian adenocarcinoma were implanted onto the visceral and pa rietal pleura of nude mouse. The human tumors grew locally and regiona lly mimicking the usual human clinical features of this disease. Moreo ver, only visceral pleural implantation subsequently involved mediasti nal lymph nodes corroborating clinical observations suggesting that vi sceral pleural involvement in pleural cancer represents an advanced-st age disease. This model should facilitate basic research of pleural ma lignancies, and stimulate studies of pleural-tumor response to cytotox ic treatment, biologic modifiers, and other modalities of therapy.