A genetically engineered mouse model of malignant testicular germ cell tumors

Abstract

Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are among the most curable solid cancers and are typically highly responsive to conventional DNA-damaging chemotherapies, even in patients with metastatic disease. It has therefore been of great interest to understand the basis for the unique chemosensitivity of these cancers, which is linked to the DNA damage sensitivity of their cancer stem cells. TGCTs have been difficult to study in the mouse, however, since most of the existing mouse models develop benign teratomas that are unlike the malignant TGCTs that afflict most testicular cancer patients. We describe here methods for generating a TGCT mouse model that closely resembles the malignant, metastatic disease observed in men with testicular cancer, and additionally include methods for analyzing the cancer stems cells and responses to chemotherapeutics in these murine TGCTs.