A clinically relevant canine lung cancer model.

Research on early human lung cancer is difficult; we have sought a canine correlate. Regimens included endobronchial submucosal injections and topical focal applications of benzo[a]pyrene, nitrosomethylurea, dimethylbenzanthracene, and methylcholanthrene, singly or in combinations. Sustained-release discs were placed into lung parenchyma or sutured into major bronchi. Tracheal segments were isolated as cervical pedicle grafts. Gross and histological evolution was reproducible. Columnar and basal hyperplasia and squamous metaplasia were early changes. Atypia occurred within 6 weeks and was found in all dogs within 16 to 18 weeks. Invasive cancers occurred within 8 to 65 months. No tracheal graft developed cancer. Of 15 dogs with parenchymal sustained-release implants, 1 to date has developed cancer in 8 months. Four endobronchial regimens have produced 16 cancers in 56 lungs at risk for 18 to 65 months. No cancers developed in 23 lungs at risk from eight other regimens. Of 10 dogs at risk for unilateral endobronchial cancer, 5 have had cancer. Of 23 dogs with both lungs at risk, 9 developed cancer. We have shown focal carcinogenesis with well-defined pathogenesis and an extended preneoplastic period at predictable sites in a lung cancer model.