What is it about?
Analgesics are not normally given to mice involved in cancer research. This is largely because it is thought that they alter rates of tumour development, and in doing so, jeopardize scientific findings. However, mice involved in such studies could become painful, which can also alter tumour growth. This paper shows that mice with involved in breast or skin cancer research cancer perform better in terms of cancer research if they receive pain relief.
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Why is it important?
Mice involved in cancer research have better welfare if they are given pain relief at the time they are given cancer, but are also more useful for studying human forms of cancer if they are pain free. This is therefore good for the animals, but also, because pain free animals produce more accurate results, is is also beneficial to the researchers using them to try to develop better treatments for people with cancer.
Perspectives
It is widely assumed that giving painkillers of other drugs to improve the welfare of mice is detrimental to results, but this study shows this is not necessarily the case. There are actually very few studies that have shown this to be the case and even fewer that have challenged whether that viewpoint is correct. Writing this article was difficult, and I feel a main reason for this was because some of those that read it found the results difficult to accept. There should be much greater effort to determine which drugs are beneficial and which actually might be harmful to the quality of scientific results before such assumptions are made.
Dr Johnny Vincent Roughan
Newcastle University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Analgesics promote welfare and sustain tumour growth in orthotopic 4T1 and B16 mouse cancer models, Laboratory Animals, December 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0023677217739934.
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