The LTL patient-derived xenografts provide unique utility for preclinical anticancer drug screening:
• Biological similarity The Living Tumor Lines are established directly from patient biopsy or surgically excised tumor tissue, and are biologically representative of original patient tumors in terms of histology, specific molecular markers, genetic/epigenetic alterations, and drug sensitivity.
• Large collection The LTL provides tumor tissue lines covering a wide range of cancer types and subtypes. Various models with different biological or genetic features (low/high grade, slow/fast growing, metastatic/non-metastatic, genetic/epigenetic alterations) are available.
• Clinical relevance LTL tumor tissue lines with high metastatic ability maintain the biology of advanced clinical disease and provide relevant models for testing the efficacy of anticancer drugs. Such metastatic tumor tissue lines reflect the malignancies in patients more accurately than conventional cell lines, and hence will be more predictive of clinical responses to established or novel drugs.
• Target specificity For targeted anticancer drugs, we can provide detailed information on gene and molecular marker expression. These human tumor lines can be characterized for known drug targets using available methods (e. g. tissue microarrays, gene expression profiles).
Novel drug candidates can be screened for efficacy and toxicity using the LTL tumor tissue lines by the following established protocol:
1. Appropriate LTL tumor tissue lines are selected from our collection (with consideration for features such as tumor type, drug target, mechanism of action etc.).
2. LTL tumor tissue lines are transplanted into desired growing site (orthotopically, subcutaneously or at the subrenal capsule site).
3. Following tumor establishment, animals are randomly assigned to experimental groups and treated. Tumor size, body weight, and animal health are monitored throughout the experiment.
4. At the end of the experiment, various protocol-specific parameters are assessed:
• Complete necropsy
• Blood, tissue and organ collection
• Body and organ weight determination
• Clinical chemistry
• Paraffin sectioning and H&E staining
• Histopathological, immunohistochemical
• other specialized assays
5. A detailed report is provided.