Pathology of rodent models of intestinal cancer: progress report and recommendations.

In October 2010, a pathology review of rodent models of intestinal neoplasia was held at The Jackson Laboratory. This review complemented 2 other concurrent events: a workshop on methods of modeling colon cancer in rodents and a conference on current issues in murine and human colon cancer. We summarize the results of the pathology review and the committee's recommendations for tumor nomenclature. A virtual high-resolution image slide box of these models has been developed. This report discusses significant recent developments in rodent modeling of intestinal neoplasia, including the role of stem cells in cancer and the creation of models of metastatic intestinal cancer.