Transplantable Animal Studies and Whole-Body Optical Imaging in Prostate Carcinoma

Current treatments of advanced prostate cancer only marginally increase overall survival and can be regarded as predominantly palliative. Hence, there is an urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of primary tumors and, more importantly perhaps, for the prevention of tumor progression and metastasis formation. Clinically relevant preclinical models are therefore urgently needed. An ideal, clinically relevant preclinical model would mimic the genetic and phenotypic changes that occur at the different stages of human prostate cancer progression and subsequent metastasis. In this chapter, transplantable xenograft prostate cancer models are described, in which human prostate cancer cells are transplanted into host animals (e.g., immune-deficient mice). Cancer cells can be administered to the small laboratory animals in various ways, including inoculation of the prostate tumor cells subcutaneously, at the anatomical site of origin (orthotopically), or at the metastatic site. In addition, we describe imaging methods suitable for small laboratory animals with emphasis on optical imaging (bioluminescence and fluorescence).