ABSTRACT
Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis, National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, Frederick, Maryland 21702;
Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center, Frederick, Maryland 21702; ** First Department of Pathology, Nagoya City University Medical School,
Nagoya, 467, Japan; t Division of Pharmaceuticals, Toxicology U.S., SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406;
Frederick, Maryland 21702
a u ’topsy (G. autopsia, seeing with one’s own eyes). 1. Postmortem examination; necropsy; necroscopy; thanatopsy; an examination of the internal organs of a dead body for the purpose of determining the cause of death or of studying the pathologic changes present. Stedman s Medical Dictionary (1)
The development of animal models of significant human illnesses provides the unique opportunity to initiate and follow a disease process from inception to any specified endpoint. The human clinical picture is all too often that of advanced or endstage disease or the loss of subjects to follow-up because of cure or patient in difference. Carcinogenesis and toxicology studies with laboratory animals yield data not only at autopsy but throughout the experimental duration in such parame ters as latency to clinical illness, diagnostic markers, early tissue changes, potential reversibility of lesions, and ultimately, opportunities for treatment and cure.
