About Preclinical Oncology Testing

Preclinical oncology testing is research conducted without using human patients as subjects. Its purpose is to discover the causes of cancer and assess the effectiveness of treatments and cures. Testing is conducted employing oncology lab techniques and used in the development of future treatments.

Oncology

Oncology is the branch of medicine that deals in the study and treatment of cancerous tumors. Studies include determining the causes of cancer, disease progression and properties of cancer. Research is crucial to the future development of medicine, and preclinical oncology tests investigate the latest treatments. Testing may employ in vitro or in vivo testing, or both. Many universities and research centers are involved in this form of testing. Over the decades, this has led to the development of new technologies for detection and treatment of the disease.  

In vitro

In Latin, in vitro is defined as “in the glass”. It refers to testing conducted in a test tube, petri dish or other container. Applications include cell proliferation, viability assays, intracellular calcium flux assays, angiogenesis, radioligand binding assays and hypoxia assays.

In vivo

Another Latin phrase, in vivo is defined as “in the living thing.” This is any research conducted on animals, such as mice. Testing applications include xenografts for tumor induction, drug dosing, toxicity results, histology, small animal imaging and sample collecting.

The future

The future of cancer treatments appears to be headed towards therapeutic approaches. Information currently available suggests a higher survival rate for patients and a shorter treatment period. Therapeutics are economically feasible as well.