"Luke! Luke! Don't! It's a trap!"-spotlight on bias in animal experiments in nuclear oncology

Mice have long served as models for studying human biology and pathology because of their phylogenetic and physiological similarity with humans. They are also easy to maintain and breed in the laboratory, and hence, many inbred strains are now available for research. Studies on mice have contributed immeasurably to our understanding of cancer biology.
The development of transgenic, knockout, and knock-in mice has led to an exponential increase in their use as model organisms in research,...

All radioactive nuclides emit high-energy particles or electromagnetic waves. When this radiation encounters living cells, it can cause heating, break chemical bonds, or ionize molecules. The most serious biological damage results when these radioactive emissions fragment or ionize molecules. For example, α and β particles emitted from nuclear decay reactions possess much higher energies than ordinary chemical bond energies. When these particles strike and penetrate matter, they...