Reconstruction of Large Diaphyseal Defects by Autoclaved Reimplanted Bone: An Experimental Study in the Rabbit
Limb-preserving surgery by local resection has become increasingly applied in the treatment of malignant bone tumours as an alternative to ablative surgery [5, 12, 13, 16]. However, the mandatory requirement for radicality often leads to extensive resections causing considerable problems of reconstruction. Several means of substituting skeletal defects have been tried both experimentally and clinically [1, 5–7]. At present, the methods most widely used in clinical practice seem to be endoprosthetic replacement and bone transplantation, either autologous or allogeneic [5, 12, 16].
Background ::: Spontaneously metastatic xenograft models of cancer are infrequent and the few that exist are resource intensive. In xenografts, caliper measurements can be used to determine primary tumor burden and response to therapy but in metastatic disease models determination of the presence of metastatic disease, metastatic burden, and response to therapy are difficult, often requiring serial necropsy. In this study we characterized the development of visceral metastases in a patient derived xenograft model (PDXM) using in vivo imaging.