Animal Models in Cancer Chemoprevention

Animal models are currently being used to check the efficacy of chemo preventive/chemotherapeutic agents. This is because the microenvironment of cultivated primary cells isolated from an animal organ/system is markedly different from in vitro systems. Animal models are important to study the interactions between different cell types and drug/ or xenobiotic metabolisms. To study specific cancer type, animal models can be generated either chemically or trans genetically. A number of tumor-specific animal models are available for chemo preventive studies. To examine the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs used for the treatment of various cancers such as prostate, skin, liver, colon etc. are being tested in the different chemically induced or transgenic animal models. However, the validity of animal models in determining the effectiveness of a chemo preventive agent in the human treatment will require the critical evaluation of the positive and negative effects of these agents on human. In this mini-review, we will throw some light on the various small mammalian animal models used in the cancer chemoprevention studies.