Blastic variants of rat promyelocytic leukemia produce neurologic disease

The characteristics of tumor cells that enable invasion into normal tissues are not well understood. We have derived variants of the promyelocytic leukemia of the Brown Norway rat (BNML) that exhibit a high incidence of growth in the epidural space and produce paralysis of the hind limbs. This unique animal model mimics a major cause of morbidity in human cancer and provides a reproducible system in which to study the determinants of metastasis localization.