Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Methods and Protocols

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Alfred K. Lam (ed.), Esophageal Adenocarcinoma: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1756,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7734-5_14, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2018

Chapter 14

Animal Model: Xenograft Mouse Models in Esophageal

Adenocarcinoma

Md Sazzad Hassan and Urs von Holzen

Abstract

Researchers often use murine models of esophageal cancer to evaluate novel therapies prior to clinical
protocol treatment. Subcutaneous xenograft models are often used for testing the efficacy of anticancer
agents in many cancers including esophageal adenocarcinoma. However, mice subcutaneous esophageal
adenocarcinoma models only represent local tumor growth and do not provide any information about a
survival benefit for a particular anticancer regimen, which is very crucial for experimental treatment effi-
cacy. In addition, anticancer agents may well inhibit subcutaneous tumor growth without effecting overall
animal survival. Herein, we describe a peritoneal dissemination mouse xenograft model for survival out-
come analysis with intraperitoneal injection of human esophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines.

Key words Esophageal adenocarcinoma, Xenograft model, Survival model, Metastatic model,

Peritoneal dissemination, OE19

1 Introduction

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) seems to respond initially to

conventional chemotherapy, but clinical benefit is limited and most

patients eventually die from metastatic disease [ 1 ]. Therefore, new

therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. The evolution and

utilization of anticancer drug screening model systems that reca-

pitulate human solid cancer architecture and biology are essential

in understanding the pathophysiology of cancer cells and in the

discovery of novel anticancer therapies. Preclinical cell culture and

animal models are currently used to screen chemical and natural

products with the aim of using them in human cancers. Thus,

researchers often use mouse xenograft models of EAC to evaluate

novel therapies prior to clinical protocol treatment [ 2 – 6 ]. Mouse

xenograft models of EAC can be subcutaneous [ 7 – 9 ], orthotopic

[ 10 , 11 ], or intraperitoneal [ 10 , 12 ]. In addition to established

EAC cell lines, patient derived xenografts (PDX) can also be used

to produce EAC mouse xenograft models [ 4 , 11 ].