New mouse model opens hormone-sensitive human breast cancer drug testing

Scientists at the Medical School of Wisconsin Cancer Center and an international team have created mice with improved hormone levels that support the growth and metastasis of implanted breast tumors in humans

Most breast cancer deaths are caused by estrogen receptor (ER) positive tumors

ER-positive breast tumors are very sensitive to prolactin, which is mainly a hormone that promotes the mother's lactation

The new study reports that by modifying the mouse's prolactin gene, the research team created a mouse that produces human prolactin levels in the blood similar to those detected in patients

The team has now established a set of transplantable estrogen-dependent patient-derived breast tumor models in NSG-Pro mice

Hallgeir Rui, professor of breast cancer research at WBCS, said: “We are particularly excited about the opportunity to study distant metastasis and test the effectiveness of late-stage er-positive breast cancer drugs, because so far there is no such experimental model

Interestingly, after surgically removing the primary tumor in the mouse breast, the research team found that two different prolactin-blocking therapies inhibited the growth of cancer cells that spread to the lungs

"The NSG-Pro mouse model provides er-positive human breast cancer with precise medical methods previously unavailable," said Yunguang Sun, Ph.

DOI

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Article title

NSG-Pro mouse model for uncovering resistance mechanisms and unique vulnerabilities in human luminal breast cancers