A technique which literally places a window in a mouse’s chest could help scientists unlock cancer’s most mysterious and deadly process.
A team of scientists from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York were able to keep a mouse alive for 21 days with a tiny piece of glass in place. During that period they could watch cells from a breast tumour spread to other tissues, reports the journal Nature Methods. In many cancers, it is not the initial tumour that kills – the danger rises as bits of it break away and travel to other parts of the body, a process called metastasis. Metastasis is still poorly understood.
The team’s earlier attempts involved peeling pack a flap of skin on the mouse’s chest so that the microscopic activity could be seen directly. Because metastasis does not occur instantly, the mice would not survive under anaesthetic for longer periods.
Their new technique involves inserting the glass “coverslip”, which means the mouse can live – and the cancer cells observed – for much longer, with the “micro-environment” surrounding the tumour kept intact.
Source: BBC News, 10, November 2008
Chapter: Cancer :: 4 December 2008
