Establishment And Characterization Of A Novel Pancreatic Cancer Tissue Xenograft Model.

5106Pancreatic cancer has a 5-year survival rate of only 3% and is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths. It is usually only detected at an advanced stage and highly resistant to chemotherapy. There is a need for clinically relevant experimental pancreatic cancer models that can be used toward a better understanding of the disease at the molecular level, its earlier detection and improved therapy. We have previously shown that primary human cancer tissues, irrespective of grade, can be successfully grown or maintained as subrenal capsule xenografts in immuno-deficient mice. In the present study we have used this methodology to develop a new pancreatic cancer model. Pieces of pancreatic tumor tissue from patients were grafted under renal capsules of Rag-2M or NOD-SCID mice. Two tumor types were used, i.e. poorly-differentiated infiltrating adenocarcinoma and pancreatobiliary adenocarcinoma. After 1 …