Non-invasive approach for assessing tumors in living animals

摘要

A means for following the growth of experimental neoplasms involves administering recombinant tumor cells containing an expression construct encoding a secretable marker to an experimental animal and measuring secreted marker in the urine of animals bearing tumors formed by such recombinant tumor cells. Urinary marker levels are quantitatively related to tumor loads. Urinary marker can be detected before tumors are grossly visible or clinically apparent. Marker levels decrease following surgical excision or chemotherapeutic treatment, with an estimated half-life of 11 hours. This approach is applicable to the study of many experimental tumor systems.