Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2010 Oct;10(5):571-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.coph.2010.06.003. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

Modeling metastasis in the mouse

Paula D Bos  1 , Don X Nguyen, Joan Massagué
Affiliations
Review

Modeling metastasis in the mouse

Paula D Bos et al. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Metastasis is a complex clinical and biological problem presently under intense study, and several model systems are in use to experimentally recapitulate and dissect the various steps of the metastatic process. Genetically engineered mouse models provide faithful renditions of events in tumor progression, angiogenesis, and local invasion that set the stage for metastasis, whereas engrafting of human or mouse tumor tissues into mouse hosts has been successfully exploited to investigate metastatic dissemination and colonization of distant organs. Real-time, high-resolution microscopy in live animals, and comprehensive genetic and molecular profiling are effective tools to interrogate diverse metastatic cancer cell phenotypes as well as the metastatic tumor microenvironment in different organs. By integrating the information obtained with these complementary approaches the field is currently obtaining an unprecedented level of understanding of the biology, molecular basis, and therapeutic vulnerabilities of metastasis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Contribution of different mouse models to the various steps of metastatic dissemination. GEM: Genetically engineered mouse models, GRAFTS: xeno- or allograft transplantation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gupta GP, Massague J. Cancer metastasis: building a framework. Cell. 2006;127(4):679–695. - PubMed

    1. Zhang XH, Wang Q, Gerald W, Hudis CA, Norton L, Smid M, Foekens JA, Massague J. Latent bone metastasis in breast cancer tied to Src-dependent survival signals. Cancer Cell. 2009;16(1):67–78.. ••This article (and ref.37) pioneered the analysis of clinical gene expression analysis with xenograft models of metastasis to identify signaling pathways involved in metastatic dissemination.

    1. Pantel K, Brakenhoff RH. Dissecting the metastatic cascade. Nat Rev Cancer. 2004;4(6):448–456. - PubMed
    1. Nguyen DX, Bos PD, Massague J. Metastasis: from dissemination to organ-specific colonization. Nat Rev Cancer. 2009;9(4):274–284. - PubMed
    1. Quintana E, Shackleton M, Sabel MS, Fullen DR, Johnson TM, Morrison SJ. Efficient tumour formation by single human melanoma cells. Nature. 2008;456(7222):593–598. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types