Preclinical mouse models of human prostate cancer and their utility in drug discovery

In vivo animal studies are an essential component of prostate cancer research, and are particularly critical for studying interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment. Numerous preclinical animal models of prostate cancer are available, including transgenic mouse models and human prostate cancer xenograft mouse models. In contrast to transgenic mouse models producing more heterogeneous cohorts of tumors, xenograft mouse models provide more controlled approaches. This unit describes procedures used to establish several distinct preclinical mouse models of human prostate cancer, including an orthotopic prostate xenograft model, an orthotopic bone metastasis model, an experimental metastasis model of intracardiac injection, and a vossicle model of tumor-bone interaction.