Research finds that Sprague-Dawley rats often develop spontaneous tumors by 2 years of age (Prejean et al., 1973). Can anybody share photographs of an SD rat, raised as a healthy control, that developed a tumor?
We are trying to develop a communication strategy for explaining base rates of spontaneous tumor in lab rats to laypeople. Misleading health claims often disseminate images of tumors in the treatment group without showing the tumors from the control group.
I have found some sources from blogs and veterinary websites, but it would be preferable to have a laboratory rat. Unfortunately for me, most photographed tumors in lab rats have been deliberately induced for the sake of cancer research.
We have wistar rats and some photos of tumors in aged animals possibly could be found.
Do you interested in it?
I can't provide photos as I no longer work with SD rats - especially not aged rats. But I have experienced this in 2 year old+ rat controls.
I assume this is against claims certain compounds cause cancer, and their proof is pictures of rat tumors. As far as I'm aware, age is a huge risk factor for spontaneous tumor development. In my experience, experimental animals unrelated to aging studies reach the end point earlier than 2 years, many by 6-12 months, depending on the project. I'm not experienced with tumor models though, but would be a good start to figure that out. Perhaps also see if you give info for the reader to determine if a rat is 2yo+, not sure how easy that would be. But if the rat looks old, this might tip the reader off to be more critical.
Danil, thanks for the offer, but we really would need SD rats rather than Wistar.
Kris, thanks for your comments. I guess it's chiefly a matter of testing different communication strategies from here.
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