Colon Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Colon Cancer, including details on causes, treatment, symptoms.

Serial assessment of human tumor burdens in mice by the analysis of circulating DNA.

Rago C, Huso DL, Diehl F, Karim B, Liu G, Papadopoulos N, Samuels Y, Velculescu VE, Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, Diaz LA

The Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Internal human xenografts provide valuable animal models to study the microenvironments and metastatic processes occurring in human cancers. However, the use of such models is hampered by the logistical difficulties of reproducibly and simply assessing tumor burden. We developed a high-sensitivity assay for quantifying human DNA in small volumes of mouse plasma, enabling in-life monitoring of systemic tumor burden. Growth kinetics analyses of various xenograft models showed the utility of circulating human DNA as a biomarker. We found that human DNA concentration reproducibly increased with disease progression and decreased after successful therapeutic intervention. A marked, transient spike in circulating human tumor DNA occurred immediately after cytotoxic therapy or surgery. This simple assay may find broad utility in target validation studies and preclinical drug development programs.

Published 2 October 2007 in Cancer Res, 67(19): 9364-70.
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