Establishing of the Transplanted Animal Models for Human Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Even with the applications of excision, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and gene therapy, the 5 year survival rate is only 15% in the USA. Clinically relevant laboratory animal models of the disease could greatly facilitate understanding of the pathogenesis of lung cancer, its progression, invasion and metastasis. Transplanted lung cancer models are of special interest and are widely used today. Such models are essential tools in accelerating development of new therapies for lung cancer. In this communication we will present a brief overview of the hosts, sites and pathways used to establish transplanted animal lung tumor models.