Preclinical, non-genetic models of lung adenocarcinoma: a comparative survey

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Animal models are key in analyzing cancer biology and therapy evaluation. We here compared relevant non-genetic lung cancer models with regard to tumor induction period, incidence, morbidity and mortality rate and the immunological composition of primary tumors and the occurrence of tertiary lymphoid organs (TLO): (I) intraperitoneal Urethane injection (1g/kg), (II) Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cell line model (intravenous or subcutaneous), and (III) three-dimensional (3D) primary cell culture model established from subcutaneously developed LLC-induced tumors. The incidence of Urethane induced lung tumors was 100% in both, C57BL/6 and BALB/c strains without morbidity or mortality at twenty weeks after injection. The mean size of tumor nodules after Urethane injection was significantly larger in BALB/c mice vs. C57BL/6 (p0.05) could be found in the count of CD4, CD8, F4/80 and NKp46 cells in a tumor nodule among investigated models. All discussed models provided a high tumor incidence rate. TLOs were exclusively found in the Urethane-induced model. No significant difference could be found regarding immune cells across models