Porcine Models of Ovarian Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Ovarian cancer continues to be the most frequently fatal gynecological malignancy and the fifth most frequent cause of death from cancer in women [1]. Progress in clinical response and therapeutic development has lagged behind many other solid tumor types. This has been attributed to our poor understanding of ovarian cancer etiology and lack of early detection techniques, including biomarker panels. Many ovarian cancer scientists agree that development of additional more clinically relevant tumor models is needed. In addition, many worldwide regulatory bodies agree that proper choice of animal model is necessary for adequate extrapolation of toxicity and efficacy data from animal to human, considering the varied classes of therapeutics now being developed for oncology. The inability of current screens, reliant on human xenografts grown in immunocompromised mice to evaluate host-immune and species-dependent effects, has made the development of alternative animal-models a priority.  

Due to recent advances in sequencing several domestic animal genomes [2,3] and the development of new organism cloning technologies [4–6], it is now very feasible to utilize other species to model human disease, notably the pig. Advantages include resemblance in anatomy, physiology, and genetic makeup with the human, as well as the ability to manipulate the pig genome [7,8]. To date, multiple porcine models of human disease [7–14] have been developed, including a genetically-engineered porcine model of cystic fibrosis [5–17]. Most recently this technology has been applied to development of porcine models of various tumor types including breast, pancreatic, and leukemia with the production major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-defined inbred miniature swine model [18], and to an OncoPig®, a highly immunocompromised pig able to act as recipients for human tumor cells. Porcine models have also been used to develop, test, and refine surgical [19,20] and laparoscopic techniques [21,22], radio- and cryoablation protocols of tissues [23–27], and robotic surgery [28,29].

This Special Issue in the journal Biology, Porcine Models of Ovarian Cancer, will highlight recent advances toward the generation of a clinically relevant large animal model of ovarian cancer, including recent advances in cloning and transgenic technology, and discoveries using such models to enhance therapeutic and surgical breakthroughs toward treating this disease.

Dr. Stephen J. Williams
Guest Editor

References

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• ovarian cancer
• porcine
• transgenics
• oncogenesis
• tumor model
• minipig