Diversity of Spontaneous Neoplasms in Commonly Used Inbred Strains of Laboratory Mice

Cancer is not a solitary disease but a large group of very different, often totally unrelated diseases that are often fatal. Inbred strains are in many ways equivalent to being an endless copy of one individual with both genders. As such, some strains are highly prone to specific types of cancers while others are not. In mice, similarly to humans, the frequency of cancer rises with age. The Jackson Aging Center characterized all types of cancers that arose in mice in 28 different strains at 20 months of age. A summary of these results with links to images in publicly accessible databases are provided here. Data obtained from the literature involving many additional inbred strains, part of the Mouse Tumor Biology Database, are also presented.