Pancreatic cancer orthotopic graft in a murine model.

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest cancers with increasing incidence. Even if progress have been made, the five-year overall survival remains lower than 10%. There is a desperate need in therapeutic improvements. In the last two decades, new in-vitro models have been developed and improved, including tridimensional-culture spheroids and organoids. However, animal studies remain mandatory in the upscaling before clinical studies. Orthotopic and syngeneic grafting is a robust model to test a drug efficiency in a tumor and its microenvironment.

Methods: We described a method for orthotopic and syngeneic graft of KRAS mutated, p53 wildtype, 8305 cells in a C57BL/6J mouse model.

Results: With this microsurgical method, 30 mice were grafted, 24 by a junior and six by a senior, resulting in 95,8 and 100% of (partial and total) successful tumoral implantation, respectively. Twenty mice underwent ultrasound follow-up. It was an efficient method for the tumoral growth evaluation. At day 16 after grafting, 85% of the tumors were detectable by ultrasound, and at day 22 all tumors were detected.

Conclusions: The presented method appears to be a robust and reliable method for pre-clinical studies. A junior master student can provide positive results using this technique, which can be improved with training.