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[ShenanigansMD]

This is completely new to me, since I'm not a cancer researcher, but check out this article:

Seeking Cures, Patients Enlist Mice Stand-Ins

Megan Sykes, a medical researcher, has a mouse with a human immune system — her own. She calls it “Mini-Me.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/b...against-disease.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

I'm just curious from any cancer researchers out there if transferring human tumors to mice is really a feasible way of determining the best treatment. I thought that human tissues have to adapt to mice and thus change, making the entire point of the experiment pointless. I might also be misinformed here.

...and I'm adding an ethics poll, just because I'm curious, and since I'm involved in animal research.

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[BABSstudent]

This is actually really cool. I am impressed that we have the technology to create mice with our immune system. I understand the benefits from doing something like this, but this seems like a waste of life since there are going to be multiple mice killed during the experiments to find the best treatment. The cost of the procedure is also too high for normal people to afford it.

"Four hours later, technicians cut the tumor into five pieces and placed each piece under the skin of an anesthetized mouse. Two months later, after the tumors had grown, they were removed, cut into pieces and each piece implanted into another mouse. A month later there were enough mice models to begin testing."

So there are going to be about 25 mice killed for every patient to find out the absolute best form of treatment (which may not have the same results in humans).

Overall, I think it is ethical but we should be looking for other ways to accomplish the same goal that will minimize the number of mice killed.

 

[Moosepig]

This is actually really cool. I am impressed that we have the technology to create mice with our immune system. I understand the benefits from doing something like this, but this seems like a waste of life since there are going to be multiple mice killed during the experiments to find the best treatment. The cost of the procedure is also too high for normal people to afford it.

"Four hours later, technicians cut the tumor into five pieces and placed each piece under the skin of an anesthetized mouse. Two months later, after the tumors had grown, they were removed, cut into pieces and each piece implanted into another mouse. A month later there were enough mice models to begin testing."

So there are going to be about 25 mice killed for every patient to find out the absolute best form of treatment (which may not have the same results in humans).

Overall, I think it is ethical but we should be looking for other ways to accomplish the same goal that will minimize the number of mice killed.

Come now my man, I can't imagine the number of chickens I have consumed just to stay alive, which is nothing compared to making it through cancer. And pigs. And cows. And turkeys.

 

[BlueLabel]

Come now my man, I can't imagine the number of chickens I have consumed just to stay alive, which is nothing compared to making it through cancer. And pigs. And cows. And turkeys.

And salmon. And tilapia. And shrimp. And flounder. Oh god, those tasty fish.

 

[911 Turbo]

Can we start a program to send those cancer ridden mice to starving African kids once the researchers are done with them?

 

[MDforMee]

Can we start a program to send those cancer ridden mice to starving African kids once the researchers are done with them?

Would you eat a BBQ'd mouse for $?

If so, how much $?

 

[La Presse]

Can we start a program to send those cancer ridden mice to starving African kids once the researchers are done with them?

That was not funny.

 

[911 Turbo]

That was not funny.

It's perfectly safe to eat tumors....I think. Better than incinerating the rats.

 

[kami333]

I worked on a similar project last year transplanting immortalized fibroblasts from patients into immune-deficient mice to test personalized therapies. We found the engraftment rate to be too low to be useful but there are many other labs looking at similar approaches.

Overall, I think it is ethical but we should be looking for other ways to accomplish the same goal that will minimize the number of mice killed.

Tons of people and companies are. No one wants to do animal studies if they don't have to, they are expensive, time consuming and the outcomes are too variable but they are the best we have. This type of transplant model is much cheaper/faster/less animals than the traditional approach of creating and characterizing a transgenic line.

It's perfectly safe to eat tumors....I think. Better than incinerating the rats.

I've heard stories from foreign postdocs that they sometimes had parties and ate their test animals afterwards but they were chickens and pigs not mice.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

i've heard stories from foreign postdocs that they sometimes had parties and ate their test animals afterwards but they were chickens and pigs not mice.

blegh!