Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
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Review Comparative Study
Of mice and humans: are they the same?--Implications in cancer translational research.
Animal models have been instrumental in elucidating key biochemical and physiologic processes of cancer onset and propagation in a living organism. Most importantly, they have served as a surrogate for patients in the evaluation of novel diagnostic and therapeutic anticancer drugs, including radiopharmaceuticals. Experimental tumors raised in rodents constitute the major preclinical tool of new-agent screening before clinical testing. ⋯ Differences in size and physiology, as well as variations in the homology of targets between mice and humans, may lead to translational limitations. Other factors affecting the predictive power of preclinical models may be animal handling during experimentation and suboptimal compilation and interpretation of preclinical data. However, animal models will remain a unique source of in vivo information and the irreplaceable link between in vitro studies and our patients.