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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jill Hunter, Dr Jacqueline Butterworth, Professor Neil PerkinsORCiD, Professor Melissa BatesonORCiD, Dr Claire Richardson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Background: Non-invasive biomarkers of disease progression in mice with cancer are lacking making it challenging to implement appropriate humane endpoints. We investigated whether body temperature could be used to predict tumour burden. Methods: Thirty-six male, wild-type C57Bl/6 mice were implanted with subcutaneous RFID temperature sensors and inoculated with Eμ-myc tumours that infiltrate lymphoid tissue. Results: Decrease in body temperature over the course of the study positively predicted post-mortem lymph node tumour burden (Β= -0.32, t(21)= -6.7, P< 0.001, R2 = 0.68, F(1,22)= 44.8, P< 0.001). At experimental and humane endpoints all mice that had a mean decrease in body temperature of 0.7°C or greater had lymph nodes heavier than 0.5 grams (100% sensitivity) whereas a mean decrease in body temperature less than 0.7°C always predicted lymph nodes lighter than 0.5 grams (100% specificity). A marked decrease in food/water consumption preceding weight loss and decrease in body temperature was also noted in mice implanted with aggressive primary tumours. Conclusion: Temperature, food and water consumption were useful biomarkers of disease progression in mice with lymphoma and could potentially be used more widely to monitor mice with other forms of cancer.
Author(s): Hunter JE, Butterworth J, Perkins ND, Bateson M, Richardson CA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: British Journal of Cancer
Year: 2014
Volume: 110
Pages: 928-934
Print publication date: 18/02/2014
Online publication date: 09/01/2014
Acceptance date: 09/12/2013
Date deposited: 18/03/2014
ISSN (print): 0007-0920
ISSN (electronic): 1532-1827
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2013.818
DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2013.818
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