Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center made news in April when they announced a strain of mice that appear to be especially resistant to cancer.
The mice strain was discovered accidentally by researchers doing cancer research. The BBC reported that researchers noted that one male mouse remained resistant to the cancer they were researching despite repeated injections with cancer cells.
So the researchers bred that male mouse and discovered that the mouse’s cancer resistance was genetically inheritable. Of the 700 mice they bred, some were completely resistant to cancer while others would get cancer when exposed to it, but the tumor would be stopped spontaneously in its tracks within a day.
Dr. Zheng Cui of Wake Forest told The BBC,
The mice became healthy and immediately resumed normal activities including mating. . . . They are healthy, cancer-free and have a normal lifespan.
The cancer resistance was attributed to an immune response that the mice exhibited in response to the presence of cancer cells.
As Dr. Susan Aldridge said of the discovery in an article for Health and Age,
Clearly this colony of animals will be a valuable model for studying mechanisms of immune protection against cancer. Immunotherapy is one of the most exciting new approaches in cancer treatment. This research may help show how it can be made more effective.
Sources:
Scientists breed cancer-beating mice. The BBC, April 28, 2003.
Researchers develop mice resistant to cancer. Associated Press, May 7, 2003.
Mice that fight off cancer shed light on human remission. Susan Aldridge, Health and Age, April 2003.