Cited by 92Animal testing and alternativesCancer Cells and MetastasisScience, Research, and Medicine

Systems for Identifying New Drugs Are Often Faulty

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Gura, Trisha·1997·Science

Abstract

Screening potential anticancer agents to find ones promising enough to make human clinical trials worthwhile has not been as straightforward as researchers would like. Not only have very few of the drugs that showed anticancer activity in animals carrying transplanted human tumors--known as xenografts--made it into the clinic, but a recent study conducted at the National Cancer Institute suggests that the tests are also missing drugs that do work in humans, possibly because animals and humans do not handle the drugs exactly the same way. And attempts to use human cells in culture don9t seem to be faring any better, partly because cell culture provides no information about whether a drug will make it to the tumor site. To create better models of cancer development in humans, investigators are now drawing on knowledge of human cancer-related gene mutations to genetically alter mice so that they carry the same kinds of changes that lead to cancer in humans. The hope is that the mice will develop tumors that behave the same way the human tumors do.

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Crossref · 10.1126/science.278.5340.1041

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  • Many potentially beneficial drugs have failed animal testing and been lost to patients, even though they would have been both safe and effective.

    “Undoubtedly many potentially beneficial drugs have failed animal testing and been lost to patients, even though they would have been both safe and effective (36,37).”

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Authors
Gura, T.
Affiliations
Trisha Gura is a writer in Cleveland, Ohio.
Corresponding author
Gura, Trisha
Venue
Science
Published
1997-11-07
Volume
278
Issue
5340
Pages
1041-1042
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W1936609228
Cited by
92
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 9
Type
other
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Cells and Metastasis
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Science, Research, and Medicine
Keywords
anticancer drug discovery, drug screening, xenografts, animal-to-human translation, genetically engineered mouse models, translational oncology
MeSH terms
Animals, Antineoplastic Agents, Disease Models, Animal, Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor, Humans, Mice, Mutant Strains, Mutation, Neoplasm Transplantation, Neoplasms, Oncogenes, Transplantation, Heterologous, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Tumor Stem Cell Assay, Genes, Tumor Suppressor, Mice, Knockout, Mice

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