Spontaneous mouse lymphoma in patient-derived tumor xenografts: The importance of systematic analysis of xenografted human tumor tissues in preclinical efficacy trials

Highlights • Immunodeficient mice are susceptible to spontaneous tumors which are rarely reported in patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX) studies. • Quality control of PDX identity is required at each step on the preclinical assays to avoid erroneous conclusions. • Description of the approaches used for this PDX check should be clearly detailed in material and methods section.
Patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDX) is now largely recognized as a key preclinical model for cancer research, mimicking patient tumor phenotype and genotype. Immunodeficient mice, well-known to develop spontaneous lymphoma, are required for PDX growth. As for all animal models used for further clinical translation, a robust experimental design is strongly required to lead to conclusive results. Here we briefly report unintentional co-engraftment of mouse lymphoma during expansion of well-established PDXs to illustrate the importance of systematic check of the PDX identity to avoid misinterpretation. Besides, this quality control based on complementary approaches deserves a more detailed description in materials and methods section to ensure experimental validity and reproducibility.
Graphical Abstract Image, graphical abstract