Radiographic Assessment of Osteosclerotic Lesions in Mice with Bone Metastasis

More than 80% of patients with advanced prostate cancer experience bone metastasis, which negatively impacts overall survival and patients' quality of life. To elucidate underlying mechanisms and devise effective treatments for bone-metastatic disease, the development of animal models is imperative. However, fully replicating human conditions proves challenging as bone metastasis rarely occurs in spontaneous prostate cancer mouse models. Therefore, to investigate the interaction between bone-metastatic cancer cells and the bone microenvironment, mouse models with direct intraosseous injection (e.g., intrafemoral injection) have been widely used. Assessing bone remodeling is key to understanding the underlying mechanisms and pathology behind this disease. As such, longitudinal radiographic analysis for assessing progressive structural changes of the bone has been used since this method presents as a more cost-effective, accessible imaging modality compared to magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. Here, we describe a method of analysis that primarily focuses on scoring the osteoblastic phenotype (solid and spiculated) in our prostate cancer bone-metastatic mouse models, given the predominance of osteosclerotic activity in prostate cancer patients.