Dynamical Observation on Biological Progression of VX2 Liver Tumors to Identify the Optimal Time for Intervention in Animal Models

Abstract

PurposeBased on practice guideline of “management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): update” published by American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and “Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging system (BCLC),” this study investigated how to enroll the optimal VX2 liver tumor model for HCC researches by dynamically observing the biological progression of the tumor.MaterialsThirty-two healthy New Zealand white rabbits were implanted VX2 liver tumor by cell suspension method (n=24) and tissue fragment method (n=8). All the rabbits underwent CT scans on day 7, 14, 21 and 28 after implantation to observe the size of the tumors, the time when metastases and ascites occurred and the survival time. Appropriate intervention times were estimated corresponding to different clinical HCC stages by using tumor diameter-time curve.ResultsThe VX2 liver tumors grew rapidly within 28 days after implantation. And the tumors in the cell suspension group grew faster than those of the tissue fragment group. The appropriate intervention time corresponding to very early stage, early stage and intermediate stage were <11 days, 11–16.9 days and >16.9 days, respectively in the cell suspension group, and <19.9 days, 19.9–25.5 days and >25.5 days, respectively in the tissue fragment group.ConclusionPreclinical animal research needs to improve on different levels to yield best predictions for human patients. Researchers should seek for an individualized proposal to select optimal VX2 liver tumor models for their experiments. This approach may lead to a more accurate determination of therapeutic outcomes.

Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 3.0T in Rabbit With VX2 Liver Cancer: Diagnostic Efficacy and Correlations With Tumor Size

“…Besides, Cho Are and Cho Amp were positively correlated with tumor size. Our results supported the application of these imaging indexes in early-stage liver cancer detection and extended the scope beyond a previous report with advanced stage only ( 14 ).…”

CT spectral imaging for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of VEGF receptor kinase inhibitor AG-013736 in rabbit VX2 liver tumours

“…New Zealand male rabbits (Experimental Animal Center of Zhengzhou University) weighing 2.5-3.5 kg were anesthetized with intramuscular injection of xylazine hydrochloride ( Shengda Co., Jilin, China) at a dose of 0.2 ml/kg body weight. The rabbit VX2 tumour model was used because of its hepatic artery blood supply [22] and biological progression [23] similar to that of human hepatocellular carcinoma. The intramuscular growth of VX2 tumour-bearing rabbit was harvested under the same anaesthesia when tumour portions grew approximately 4 cm 3 in volume.…”

Rabbit VX2 Liver Tumor Model: A Review of Clinical, Biology, Histology, and Tumor Microenvironment Characteristics

“…The methods to induce the development of VX2 tumors in the liver have been described in detail in several review and investigation papers ( 10 – 12 ). Different types of inoculum and modalities of grafting of the tumor cells into the liver may be used that will affect tumor growth and tumor seeding.…”

“…A size of 3 cm, which is considered a threshold for surgery/ablation vs. TACE allocation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, is reached after approximately 15 days, depending on the modality of tumor induction. At 6 weeks after implantation, rabbits may present very large tumors measuring 7.5 cm in length and 115 cc in volume ( 7 , 12 , 17 , 19 , 22 , 23 ).…”