Uveal melanoma is the most common primary malignant intraocular tumour in adults and despite advances in treatment of the primary tumour, the 10-year survival rate remains unchanged. The most frequent cause of death for patients of this disease is liver metastases. Removal of the primary tumour before clinical presentation of metastases, however, has no effect on patient outcome. / In order to understand the interactions between single malignant cells or sub-clinical metastases and affected organs, we have successfully developed a novel animal model of uveal melanoma. We utilized the unique properties of green fluorescent protein, a skin-flap in vivo imaging technique, and nude mice to accomplish this goal. The precision of green fluorescent protein imaging has allowed us to observe single cells interacting with organ tissues and reveal that these malignant cells are only capable of surviving in the liver.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.112536 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Logan, Patrick, 1982- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Pathology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002699483, proquestno: AAIMR51304, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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