Orthotopic Xenografting of Human Luciferase-Tagged Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor Cells for in vivo Testing of Candidate Therapeutic Agents

Although in vitro screens are essential for the initial identification of candidate therapeutic agents, a rigorous assessment of the drug's ability to inhibit tumor growth must be performed in a suitable animal model. The type of animal model that is best for this purpose is a topic of intense discussion. Some evidence indicates that preclinical trials examining drug effects on tumors arising in transgenic mice are more predictive of clinical outcome1and so candidate therapeutic agents are often tested in these models. Unfortunately, transgenic models are not available for many tumor types. Further, transgenic models often have other limitations such as concerns as to how well the mouse tumor models its human counterpart, incomplete penetrance of the tumor phenotype and an inability to predict when tumors will develop